Tech Support meet Translations
by Millemini
Summary: AU/OOC story. Auggie, fresh out of rehab, gets a new job as Tech Support at Trusted Translations where he meets Annie Walker, world traveller and translator. They become best friends and their relationship moves on to romance. Ch. 20: Marry me  COMPLETE
1. Back to work

**This is my first attempt on an AU story.**

**Auggie lost his sight not long ago and is struggling to adjust to his new world. He finds a job at Trusted Translations and meets Annie Walker, translator and world traveller.**

**The start is a bit short, but I do have quite a few ideas for this story IF you wanna read them.**

**AN 2: I've updated the 1st chapter after some suggestions from a couple of my faithful readers. I'm working on the 2nd chapter now.**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Covert Affairs or the characters. Annie and Auggie belong to the USA Network and of course Piper Perabo and Christopher Gorham.**

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><p><strong><span>Chapter 1<span>**

Thursday, March 11th 2010

After more than two months of searching for a job August "Auggie" Anderson was loosing his patience. He'd lost his eyesight while serving in Iraq, being career military was no longer an option and he had to get himself a civilian job. He'd finished his rehab at the Hines VA hospital almost three months earlier and after spending a few weeks with his family in Glencoe, Illionis he'd returned to his apartment in Washington DC. His parents had tried to persuade him to move back to their house, but at the age of 33 moving in with his parents was not an option he was willing to consider at the moment. DC had been his base for the past few years, he had friends there (well, at least he thought he did, he wasn't sure at the moment, it seemed like the white cane drove them away) and he felt a need to prove to both himself and his family that he was capable of living independently despite his disability. It was what he had worked for through four hard months of rehab.

At the moment he was living off his small military pension and his trust fund, but he really needed a job, a real income, soon. He had his degree in Computer Science; he'd worked as a software developer before rejoining the Army and being deployed to Iraq and hoped to be able to make a living within that field. At the moment it seemed very unlikely, apparently a blind guy wasn't a very attractive employee. He'd just received his 23rd rejection (not that he was counting…) and he'd lost count of the number of applications he'd never received any kind of feedback on. Although loneliness had never been part of his personality, growing up with four older brothers he actually liked solitude and quiet; it was a rare treat during his childhood years, he was beginning to feel lonely. He missed his friends, having co-workers and a social life. He was also starting to get restless from spending the days writing applications and surfing the internet, looking for jobs. With a sigh he headed over to the kitchen and retrieved a shot glass from the upper cabinet. He was about to do some damage to his stash of Patron when his landline phone started ringing, caller unknown.

"Anderson," he replied apprehensively.

"August Anderson? This is Jeffrey McCarthy from Trusted Translations. You've applied for the position as Technical Support here, correct?"

"Yes, I have."

"Can you make it here for an interview tomorrow at 1 pm?"

"No problem sir."

"I'll see you then. Have a good night Mr. Anderson."

"Thank you sir. See you tomorrow."

Auggie smiled as he hung up the phone. He had an interview. Usually he got a letter or email of rejection without being interviewed. That Mr. McCarthy was taking the time to meet him gave him some hope.

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><p><span>Monday, March 22nd 2010<span>

In Georgetown Anne Catherine "Annie" Walker was in her sisters guesthouse, getting ready to go back to work. She'd taken six months off work to travel around Europe and had just returned a couple of days ago. She wished she could keep travelling, but her savings were pretty much spent and her she needed to get back to work. Hopefully she'd be able to save up enough to go on another adventure within the next couple of years. The travels were essential in keeping her language skills sharp, being a linguist, fluent in six languages. They were also far more exciting than her desk job at Trusted Translations. Sure, she liked that she made a living of her language skills, but she wasn't a huge fan of being chained to a desk and computer. Still, a small part of her looked forward to getting back to the office, she liked her co-workers and they always had fun together.

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In the Tech Support office at Trusted Translations Auggie was busy updating a server. He'd started working there the previous Wednesday and so far he liked the job. Some tasks seemed a bit mundane, but he was doing something useful again and more important; he was getting paid for it. It was good to get out of the apartment. His employer had been very accommodating to his special needs and they'd set him up with a fast computer, tricked out with top of the line screen reading software, refreshable Braille display, document reader and headphones. He'd taken money out of his trust fund to buy himself the same for his personal laptop a few months back and he knew how pricey it was. There were several challenges to starting a new job when blind, he struggled with finding his way around the office building, he had the route from the entrance to the elevator and from the elevator to his office down pat, but that was it, the maze of corridors was disorienting. Hopefully he'd get to know some co-workers well enough to ask them to show him around soon. As he finished up the server update the Tech Support line started ringing.

"Tech Support, Auggie Anderson speaking."

"Hi, Annie Walker here. May I speak to John please?"

"Sorry, John quit, you'll have to settle for me. How may I help you?"

"Oh, well my laptop just froze for the third time today, there's gotta be something wrong. I've restarted it, but it just keeps happening."

"Bring it to the office and I'll take a look at it, so to speak."

"Huh?" Annie was confused, what did he mean by his last line? "Can't you come here? John always did."

Auggie fought back a sigh. She'd obviously not read the memo he'd sent out when he started, explaining that because of his disability he needed the staff to bring their computers to his office, so he could dock them with his computer and access them through it.

"I'm sorry, I can't. Didn't you get my memo?" He instantly regretted his somewhat clipped tone.

"I just got back from a six month leave and I haven't had time to read all my email yet. My boss I gave me this urgent translation that I'm now far behind on because of this damn computer crashing. Why?" Annie asked, slightly irritated. What was up with this new guy? Was he to lazy to get off his ass?

"I'm blind and I need some special aides to work a computer. That's why I need you to bring it here." Auggie explained, feeling slightly embarrassed.

"Oh, sorry...uh…I'll bring it right over." Annie felt mortified as she hung up the phone. She'd seen the memo from an 'Anderson, August – Tech Support' in her inbox, but she'd figured it was just some gibberish about not downloading viruses or something and deleted it. She closed the laptop, removed it from the docking station on her desk, tucked it under her arm and headed for the Tech Support office.

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A light knock on the doorjamb got Auggie's attention. He stood from his chair and he turned towards the door. "May I help you?"

"I just called about my laptop crashing, you told me to bring it over," Annie said tentatively, trying not to stare at the man in front of her, staring was rude, especially at a blind person. Auggie was nothing like the geek she expected. He was wearing a pair of well fitting dark jeans and a light gray fitted shirt that revealed his muscular build. She noticed his surprisingly expressive, though slightly unfocused, chocolate brown eyes and shaggy brown hair. He was without a doubt very handsome and definitely not your average computer geek like his predecessor had been.

"Annie Walker, right?" Auggie flashed her a bright smile and held out his right hand in her direction. She grasped it firmly.

"Yeah, I'm sorry I didn't read your memo Mr. Anderson," she said apologetically.

"I'm Auggie and it's not a problem. Now, give me your laptop and let me see if can find out what the problem is," he said and held out his hand. Annie held out the laptop in his direction, then, realizing he couldn't see it, she lightly brushed it against the back of his outstretched hand. He grabbed it with a smile and placed it on a docking station next to a monitor and a keyboard sitting on top of a purple platform with lots of buttons and what looked like Braille cells on it. He grabbed a pair of high-end earphones off his the desk and put them on. Annie watched as he worked, mesmerized at how fluently he seemed to work without seeing. A few minutes later he pulled the headphones so they hung around his neck and turned his chair in her direction.

"This will take a while to sort out, sorry. I'll email the document you were working on to you and you can work on one of the computers in the training room for now. I'll do my best to fix it by the end of the day, but no promises." Auggie flashed her a bright smile and hoped she wouldn't be too mad at him. For some reason people seemed to be a bit short tempered when he didn't have an instant fix for their computers.

"Damn, oh well…it's not your fault. Guess I'll head to the training room then. You'll call me when it's ready?"

"Well, since you won't be at your desk it won't be much use to call. Do you have a Skype account?"

"Yeah, username is 'a_walker'."

"Be sure to accept a my request then, 'auggie.a', and I'll Skype you when I'm done. Ok?"

"Yep, thanks Auggie. See you…oh sorry…" Annie broke off mid-sentence, feeling more than slightly awkward by her choice of words.

"Don't worry. I use words like that all the time myself. It's just awkward if people watch what they say around me in fear of offending me." Auggie smiled and winked at her as she left his office. He had a feeling that he wanted to get to know Annie Walker.

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><p><strong>So, what do you think? Like? Dislike? Push the button and 'REVIEW' :)<br>****As long as it's constructive I appreciate it!  
>ll<strong>  
><strong>ll<strong>  
><strong>\ **


	2. New friends

**Thank you for the reviews and alerts on the first chapter! As I said, this is my 1st attempt at an AU story, so I'm not at all sure where this is going. The roles of A&A might be somewhat reversed, but without revealing more; Auggie will be Annie's rock in this version too. :)**

**Here's the 2nd chapter - Enjoy:)**

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><p><strong>Chapter 2<strong>

Thursday, March 25th 2010

After a week at Trusted Translations Auggie was still struggling to adjust and get comfortable there. The job itself was ok; it felt good to be part of the workforce again. What troubled him was that he hadn't really gotten to know any of his co-workers. He worked alone in the Tech Support office and didn't really interact with the rest of the staff unless they had computer problems. He hadn't been able to familiarize himself much with the layout of the building, he'd located the break room and the bathroom on his floor, but he still hadn't managed to find the food court. His stomach growled and he checked his watch, it was lunchtime and he was starving. So far he'd brought a sandwich or something else from home for lunch and just eaten in his office. Today he'd slept in and not wanting to keep the car service waiting longer than necessary he hadn't taken the time to fix breakfast or something to take with him. He regretted that now, as he focused his attention to the project he was in the middle of trying his best to ignore his hunger.

Half an hour later he felt a headache starting. He knew he needed to eat something, or the headache would end up as a full-blown migraine that would put him out of business for at least two days. He didn't want take out sick days after only a week on the job. He'd always had light migraines from time to time, but since the explosion in Iraq they'd become more frequent and severe, not to mention much easier to trigger. Not eating properly was playing with fire. With a heavy sigh he grabbed his folded up cane from the top drawer in his desk and unfurled it. After tapping it twice to make sure it was securely locked he set it in motion and headed for the main hallway on the floor, hoping he'd meet someone to ask for directions to the food court.

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><p>A few minutes later he was standing by the elevators, half leaning on his cane, pondering over what to do when he heard footsteps approaching. They sounded familiar, only a few people here wore stilettos to work; Annie Walker was one of them. When she came closer he recognized the subtle smell of Jo Malone Grapefruit, it was definitely Annie.<p>

"Hi Auggie," she greeted him.

"Annie, nice to see you again. Everything ok with your laptop?" Auggie said with a smile.

"How did you know it was me?" Annie asked with surprise.

"Most women here seems to wear sneakers or flats, your heels give you away, as well as your perfume. Jo Malone Grapefruit, right?"

"Am I wearing too much?" Annie asked with concern.

"Not at all, very subtle. You never answered my other question."

"Oh, my laptop is just fine, thank you very much. So, where are you headed?"

"Uh… I'm starving and I was hoping to run to someone that could give me directions to the food court. I have no idea where it is or how to get there."

Annie looked at him; he seemed embarrassed and uncomfortable, his head was bowed and his eyes appeared to be studying his black suede loafers.

"I guess it's your lucky day then, I was just heading there myself. Wanna join me for lunch?" Annie asked with a smile. She was intrigued by Auggie and decided to take the opportunity to get to know him a little better. His face lit up at her question.

"Great, I appreciate it."

Annie grabbed his hand and started walking towards the elevator, but Auggie didn't move.

"I thought you wanted to go to the food court?" Annie sounded confused.

"I do, but I guess I should explain the proper way for you to guide me."

"Oh, sorry, I didn't realize…"

"Hey, it's ok." Auggie smiled at her. "Brush your right hand against the back of my left, that's how you let me know that you're willing to be my sighted guide…" Annie did as Auggie instructed and he followed her arm up and grasped it lightly just above the elbow. "Now, just walk normally, pause when we approach any obstacles, like stairs or doors and let me know if the stairs are going up or down and which way the door opens. That's about it, it's not hard, just don't run me into something. I do that enough on my own," he said with a small laugh.

"Okay, sounds straight forward enough," she replied. "Let's get going then, I'm hungry too."

They made their way to the food court in silence; Auggie was paying attention to where they were going, hoping he'd be able to make his way there on his own later. Annie was focused on guiding him.

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><p>Ten minutes later they were seated and Annie almost forgot to eat her own food as she watched Auggie polish off his cheeseburger and large order of fries. She'd been surprised when he ordered junk food, the body revealed by the fitted black sweater and dark jeans he wore had her thinking that he would order something healthy.<p>

"I guess you weren't kidding about being hungry, were you?" she said as she started eating her chicken salad.

"No, I wasn't kidding. I haven't eaten at all today. Slept in and didn't have time for breakfast or packing lunch this morning. Thanks for taking me to lunch."

"You don't need to thank me, I was going for lunch anyway and having company is nice." They finished their meals in silence. Auggie broke the silence.

"How long have you worked here?"

I started working freelance when I was in college and kept working freelance for a while after I graduated. I travelled a lot and the freedom suited me. I started full time three years ago, but I've had the last six months off to travel around Europe. To practice my language skills first hand."

"I take it you're a linguist? How many languages?"

"Yeah, I have a Masters in Linguistics from Georgetown. Seven."

"Which languages?"

"Russian, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Greek and Swedish. I'm fluent in the first six. So how about you? What's your background?"

"I've got a Bachelors in Computer Science from Northwestern, being a linguist you've probably already picked up my accent and figured out that I'm from the northwest?"

"Chicago?"

"Glencoe, just north of Chicago. Anyway, I did ROTC in college and went on active duty after graduation. When I finished my tour I got a job here in DC as a software developer, worked mostly on security software. Last year I got called up and was offered another tour in Iraq. I accepted; the company I worked for had gotten new management and I didn't really agree with the direction they wanted to go in so I quit and left for Iraq. Didn't think anything could happen to me, boy was I wrong…." Auggie sighed heavily. "About eight months ago I got out of a Humvee to look at a dead dog in the road, it was rigged with an IED. The explosion left me blind." Auggie paused briefly before continuing. "A few weeks at Walter Reed, four months of rehab and close to three months of job searching later and here I am. Getting a job isn't easy for anyone these days, and being blind certainly doesn't help." He felt a hand on his arm, squeezing it lightly.

"I can't even imagine how hard that must have been." Annie said compassionately. To Auggie's surprise there wasn't any trace of pity in her voice. He put his hand on top of hers and gave her a faint smile. A lump was building in his throat and he couldn't find the right words. The memories were still raw and he was still adjusting to his new situation. Suddenly Annie's phone beeped. It was a text from her boss, wondering why she was late for their meeting. She quickly replied that she was on her way.

"Oh God, I completely lost track of time, I've got to head back upstairs Auggie. I'm late for a meeting with my boss," Annie said as she rose from her chair. "Just hang on for a sec." She quickly gathered up their plates, flatware and glasses and put them on the trolley by the kitchen door and returned to Auggie. He was standing next to his chair and had unfolded his cane while she was gone. She brushed the back of his hand and he latched on to her elbow. They walked briskly back towards the elevator and a few minutes later Annie placed Auggie's hand on the doorknob on his office door. "Your office! I've gotta run. See you later," she yelled as she ran down the corridor. Auggie smiled as he entered his office; eating had done the trick and his headache was pretty much gone and having lunch with Annie had made this the best day since he started working there.

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><p><span>Friday, March 26th 2010<span>

Late Friday afternoon Auggie was wrapping up a few things before taking off for the weekend. It was nothing that really _had_ to be done, but he'd always liked to tie up loose ends before the weekend and enjoy his time off knowing that he didn't have anything waiting for him when he got back. In the two days since he'd had lunch with Annie he'd managed to find the food court on his own without getting lost and Annie had given him a tour of the offices. He was still a bit overwhelmed by the maze of corridors, but he knew he just needed to give it time. A familiar knock on his the doorjamb got his attention, the faint smell of grapefruit confirmed that it was Annie. He turned in his chair to face her.

"Hey Auggie, wanna come to the Tavern for a few end of the week beers?"

"The Tavern? I'm not familiar with that place. And who's going?"

"It's a bar in Georgetown. There's usually a bunch of people from here there every Friday. I'm not sure who's coming, but I think we'll be somewhere around six people from the European desk, give or take a couple."

Auggie hesitated. Part of him was excited, he missed having a social life, but he still found meeting new people daunting, especially groups. Annie sensed his hesitation and moved closer to him.

"Please Auggie, it'll be fun," she pleaded. The pleading tone in her voice won him over. "Buck up Anderson," he thought. "A couple weeks ago you were throwing yourself a pity party because you missed having a social life and here's your chance to have one again."

"Ok, I'll come. Probably best if you drive," he said with a crooked grin on his face.

"You think? I've got to finish up a translation before we head out, it'll probably take about half an hour or so. Ok?"

"Yeah, I've still got some stuff to do, half an hour sounds good."

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><p>When he went to bed late that night Auggie felt more alive than he had for months. He'd enjoyed spending time with Annie and he'e actually gotten to know quite a few of his co-workers, at least the ones Annie knew. He had a feeling the work week ahead would be far less intimidating than the one he'd just finished. His life might have changed, it would never be the same, but he had a feeling it might not be all that bad.<p> 


	3. Unexpected visitors

**Thank you so much for the reviews, alerts and favorite stories :o) **

**I've gotten a couple of PM's asking how I plan to incorporate the CIA in this story; the answer is that there won't be any sign of the CIA. This is an AU (Alternate Universe) story. Just wanted to clarify that. **

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Covert Affairs.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 3<strong>

Saturday, April 17th 2010

It was late Saturday afternoon and Auggie was sitting on his sofa, thinking about how things had changed in the weeks that had passed since he started working at Trusted Translations. Especially since Annie Walker came in to his office with her broken laptop. The end of the week beers with his co-workers at Allen's Tavern on Fridays had become a regular thing and he usually had lunch with Annie and some of the people on the European desk. Another thing was that he didn't have to use the car service to get to work any more. When Annie gave him a ride home from the Tavern one Friday she'd insisted that he should ride with her to work. Apparently it was only a few blocks out of her way and according to her it was a waste that he was paying a car service to take him when she almost passed by his place on her way. Auggie had tried to protest, but to no avail. One thing he'd realized about Annie Walker in the short time he'd known her was that she was stubborn. When she set her mind on something she usually got her way.

It was Auggie's pride that initially objected to catching a ride with Annie to work. After mulling it over for a while he'd realized that Annie offered to give him a ride because she was being Annie; not because she thought he couldn't get to work on his own or because she pitied him. During the first weeks after the explosion in Iraq he'd thought that living alone, having some semblance of independence again, was impossible. By the time he left the rehab facility he was set on going back to DC, get a job and rebuild whatever he could of his old life. He wanted to be as independent as possible for a blind guy and he was definitely not going to be a burden on the people he loved. Pity was the last thing he wanted. He had thought that his friends would be there for him, it was a disappointment when most of them seemed to avoid him and the few times he'd seen some of them it had been awkward. At he moment he didn't really know how to get that part of his old life back, but the loneliness he'd started feeling before he started working had subsided and their absence from his life wasn't as painful as it had been.

His thoughts were interrupted by his iPhone ringing; it was the tune he'd assigned to Annie. He wondered what she wanted on a Saturday

"Hi Annie, what's up?"

"Hey…um…I was just wondering if you have any plans tonight?" She seemed insecure and more hesitant than usual. Her voice was kind of husky, like she'd been crying.

"Not really, figured I'd call for some food and watch, well listen to, a movie or two. Got some DVD's with an assistive viewing track in the mail the other day. Why?"

"Well..I got into this stupid fight with my sister and I just want to get out of here for a while. Sitting alone in the guest house with a six-pack is a bit sad…"

"Yep, especially if you add some tequila to that equation," Auggie teased. "Remind me to call AA for you on Monday."

"Oh har Auggie, very funny."

"Bring your six-pack here, we can order some food and if you're on your best behavior I might let you watch a movie or two with me too."

A sigh of relief came through the phone.

"Really? Thanks Auggie, when?"

"Um…," Auggie paused to check the time. "How 'bout around 7:30?"

"Sounds good to me. Do you need me to bring anything?"

"Just that six-pack you were talking about. See you in a couple of hours."

"Great!"

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><p>At 7:25 Annie knocked on Auggie's door, six-pack in hand. She wondered what Auggie's place was like; the building seemed nice and it was located in a great neighborhood. The door opening; revealing a casually dressed Auggie, interrupted her thoughts.<p>

"Hi, thanks for letting me come over. I appreciate it."

"No problem, I can think of worse things than spending Saturday night with a hot blonde chick," he said with a wink in her direction, gesturing for her to enter.

"Oh, so you think I'm hot? And exactly how do you know that?" Annie said, nudging Auggie with her elbow. She quickly scanned his apartment. It was open plan, and furnished with modern furniture. The color scheme was pretty monochrome, from white, through gray to black, but two red chairs in front of the sofa spiced things up, as well as a brown leather chaise in the corner next to the sofa. It was extremely neat, no unnecessary clutter. She quickly realized that it was probably by necessity; she'd seen his office at work. Everything had its place.

"I have my methods," he replied flippantly as they sat down on the sofa.

"I'm sure you do, and I have a feeling that you're not about to reveal them."

"Damn right! Now, what do you wanna eat? Pizza? Chinese? Thai? Indian? Italian? I pretty much have a world of cuisine on my speed dial, so pick a country. I'm game as long as you don't suggest sushi or pizza with anchovies."

"That's a lot of choices. You're the one that know the places, which is the best?"

"I'd say the Chinese place and the Italian restaurant. They always deliver on time; never screw up my order and quality seems to be consistent. The other places are a bit more uneven; the only reason I order from there is for variety. Living on Chinese food and pizza gets a bit boring after a while."

"Sounds like you order in a lot."

"Well, there was a cooking class in rehab, but I've never been much of a foodie to be honest. My cooking is limited to sandwiches, microwave dinners and the odd salad." Auggie shrugged his shoulders.

"You're not alone in that department. My sister is the cook in the family; if I were living alone I'd probably live on noodles and microwave dinners. I can't cook to save my life, really."

"It can't be that bad?" Auggie asked with a crooked grin.

"Let's just say I strongly suggest that you decline if I ever invite you to dinner, unless I'm _not _cooking."

"Duly noted Walker. Can we please get on with ordering some dinner? I'm starving. So, Chinese or Italian?"

"I like both, whatever you haven't had recently is fine. Do you have menus stashed away somewhere?"

"Well, there might be some in the catchall drawer in the kitchen, but they're at least a year old, so I doubt that they'll be much good. Regular print menus don't mean much to me these days." Auggie got up and grabbed what turned out to be an iPad from the kitchen island. On the way back he grabbed two beers out of the fridge. Annie realized that he was not using his cane and she was mesmerized by the way he moved around freely in his apartment, it was like he could see.

"Here, there's a menu app from the Chinese place, Xu's, on the 2nd screen. I know what I'm getting," he said as he handed her the iPad and a beer.

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><p>Three and a half hours later the end credits of the movie rolled across the TV screen. Annie was half asleep, resting her head on Auggie's shoulder. She'd seen the movie before and the combination of beer, a few shots of tequila and her being tired had knocked her out. Auggie gently shook her shoulder, she was obviously startled and jerked away from him, feeling slightly embarrassed.<p>

"Sorry Auggie."

"For what? I've been told that my shoulder makes a very comfortable pillow," he said with a confident smirk on his face. Annie laughed and punched him playfully on the upper arm. She looked at his watch; it was later than she thought.

"It's getting late, I should get home. I'll call a cab, I'm not fit to drive." She groped around her bag for her phone.

"I'm not going anywhere, feel free to stay."

"Thanks for the offer, but I'm tired and I don't think I'll be very good company, unless you count me falling asleep on your couch company."

"You wouldn't be the first person to fall asleep on my couch, but I see where you're coming from. We've had a crazy week at work, haven't we?"

They'd worked 10 to 12 hour days the last week. Annie had been swamped in Russian translations, being the only Russian translator at the moment. Auggie had been forced to juggle a major update of the company servers and several support inquiries from staff members. He was starting to feel that the job was too much for one person, but he was afraid that his boss would think that he wasn't capable of doing his job because of his disability.

"Yeah, I've told Joan that she needs to hire another Russian translator. There's just been too much to do for one person, but I think she still holds a grudge because I was granted that six month leave to travel." Annie sighed heavily.

"I know what you mean. Sometimes I think that my job is a bit too much for one person to manage, but it might just be because of my useless eyes." Auggie leaned forward and rested his forearms on his knees. His head was slightly bowed; his eyes appeared to be scanning the floor around his bare feet.

"Don't go there Auggie. John complained about the workload too. You were hired because you're qualified and from what I hear around the office people think you're doing a good job, even better than John. You're nicer too, even if we have to come to your office with our problems. John was kind of a grumpy old man." Annie nudged him in the arm with her elbow.

Auggie turned towards her, with a questioning look on his face. "Really? You're not just trying to make me feel better?"

"No, I'm not," she said firmly. "You do a great job, you usually solve our problems fast and the servers seem to have far less downtime." Annie reached out and grabbed his hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "Now I'm calling a cab, we should both go to bed and recharge our batteries. I have a feeling that the next week won't be any better, at least not for me."

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><p>Half an hour later Auggie was getting ready for bed. Annie was right, work was taking its toll and he needed the rest. Just as he'd put his head down on the pillow there was a knock on the door. His initial thought was that Annie had left something, her keys maybe, but the knock didn't sound like Annies. He tried to ignore it, hoping that whoever it was would give up, thinking that he was either asleep or not there. It didn't happen, the knocking only got more persistent. With a sigh he pulled the covers back, got out of bed and headed for the front door.<p>

"Who is it?" he asked through the closed door. He missed being able to use his peephole.

"It's your brother," the familiar voice of his brother Joshua came through the door. Auggie immediately unlocked the door and slid it open.

"Josh? What the hell is going on?"

"Sheesh Aug, is that a way to greet your brother?"

"I guess not, sorry. Just surprised that's all, and you know I've never been a huge fan of surprises," Auggie said with a grin, taking a step back, allowing his brother to enter. This weekend was certainly full of surprises, first Annie's visit and now his brother. It had him rethinking his opinion of surprises. Maybe they weren't that bad?


	4. Brothers

**Thanks for the reviews, alerts etc.! :o) As always appreciated!**

**Hope you enjoy this chapter! I enjoyed writing it" :)**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Covert Affairs.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 4<strong>

Sunday, April 18th 2010

When Josh had entered the apartment, apparently pulling a wheelie bag behind him, Auggie closed and locked the door behind him before resuming the questioning of him. Auggie didn't understand why Josh had showed up on his doorstep, unannounced, at 12:30 am at night. They'd never been that close and Josh usually opted for staying at a hotel, rather than crashing with his brother, when he was in DC. Auggie did have an idea about what might be going on though and he wasn't about to let his brother off the hook.

"Not that I'm not happy to see you, but seriously, what's going on?"

"What makes you think something is going on? Can't a guy drop by his baby brother and say hi when he's in town?"

"Cut the crap bro. Saying hi usually involves taking me to lunch or dinner somewhere, not showing up unannounced at my door well past midnight," Auggie said firmly in a no-nonsense tone. Josh looked at his youngest brother. He was standing in front of him, arms crossed, wearing nothing but a pair of black sleep pants. His torso showed that he obviously kept his exercise routines up and even blind he was able to shoot him a pretty good glare. He looked imposing; he was not a guy you'd mess with. After taking a deep breath and letting it escape slowly through pursed lips he spoke.

"It's kind of a long, not to mention embarrassing, story."

Auggie fought to keep himself from showing that he was about to burst out with laughter. His suspicion that this involved yet another woman his brother had met online was growing by the second.

"Well, I've got all night." Auggie walked across the room to the fridge and pulled out two Heineken and headed for the sofa, motioning for Josh to follow him. Josh sat down in one of the red chairs and Auggie handed him a beer and put the other one down on the coffee table. "Just let me grab a t-shirt," he said as he quickly headed for the bedroom. He pulled out the first t-shirt his hands touched from his dresser, a plain grey one according to the Braille label, and pulled it on before returning to the living room. He sat down in the sofa and snaked his hand across the table until his knuckles touched cold, wet glass. He grasped the bottle and took a swig of beer, he heard his brother taking a swig of his as well. A couple of swigs of beer later Josh was still quiet.

"Josh, do you need even more liquid courage? I have a pretty good stash of liquor; can I get you anything? Jack Black? Patron?"

Josh raised his hand to decline, and then he realized that it didn't mean anything to his brother these days, that he needed a verbal reply. "No thanks Auggie. I'm good." With a heavy sigh he started to talk. "Promise you won't laugh at me."

"Me? I would never laugh at you," Auggie said with a feigned look of innocence on his face, then he continued in a more sincere tone. "Seriously, I'm not going to laugh at you Josh. Unless the story warrants it that is."

"Well, I met this woman in a bar a few months back, back in Chicago, and we hit it off pretty fast. She was in town for business. The next few times she came to town we met, went out for dinner and maybe drinks. We kept in touch via Skype and emails between her visits. Things were getting kind of serious, she started talking about moving to Chicago, something about a possible promotion coming up. I helped her look for apartments, but all of a sudden I didn't hear from her at all. No emails, phone calls, texts, she was never logged on Skype or Facebook. Just nothing for about two months. She called my out of the blue a week ago, gave me this long story about her mother being sick and dying. I bought it, I was just happy to hear from her again. Anyway, she asked me if I would come to DC to see her, apparently she was taking care of her recently widowed father and couldn't get away. By coincidence I was going here for a conference Monday and Tuesday next week, so I booked flights and a hotel room to come a couple of days early and agreed to spend the weekend with her. I arrived on Friday. We went out for dinner that night, spent the night at the hotel and had a great day together, exploring the city today. As we were leaving the restaurant after dinner tonight we ran into her daughter, girl in her early twenties, and some friends of hers. She'd obviously told her family that she was busy with a business conference this weekend, 'cause she fed her daughter some story about me being a co-worker from out of town in DC for the first time and that she was just showing me the sights. The daughter seemed unconvinced, holding hands probably didn't help the image of being co-workers, but she just shook her head and shot us a dirty look and left." Josh paused and drained the last of his beer. Auggie followed suit and drained his bottle as well.

"As soon as we were back at the hotel I asked her what the hell was going on. Gave me this long story about a miserable marriage, she was about to leave her husband, they were separating and all that crap. At that point I didn't trust anything she said, I realized that she'd lied to me; she'd obviously lied to me from day one and I didn't want anything to do with her. I packed my bag and told her she could have the hotel room for the night. I left and went down to the reception, paid for the room and requested another room for myself. The hotel was fully booked, the only rooms they had available were the two biggest suites, which I declined. Spending $2500 on a night sleep wasn't really an option, so I asked them to call me a cab and here I am. Can I just crash on your couch tonight Auggie? I'll find another hotel first thing in the morning."

Auggie smiled at his brother's obvious embarrassment and the pleading tone in his voice. He was also getting tired and wanted to get back to bed. "Sure, stay as long as you want, I don't mind if you stay here until you leave, I don't mind the company." Auggie said with a smile.

"Really? I feel kind of stupid for showing up like this without warning you first."

"Hey, it's fine, but you'll need a quick lesson on living with a blind guy if you're staying." Auggie got up from the sofa and headed for the bedroom, gesturing for Josh to come with him. He retrieved the folded up guest bed from the back of his walk in closet and pushed it in his brothers direction, when he felt it being taken from his hands he turned to the linen shelf and pulled out a set of sheets, two pillows and a folded up quilt before returning to the living room. He set the stack down on the sofa. "Set up the bed by the wall there, and place your bag somewhere out of the way so I don't have to worry about tripping over it. Don't move any furniture. Feel free to anything in the fridge and cupboards, but put things back exactly where you find them and make sure the Braille labels don't fall of. I'll put some fresh towels for you on the far left side of the counter in the bathroom. Same rules there; put stuff back where you find it. Ok?"

"Got it; put stuff back where I find it, don't move the furniture and don't leave anything out for you to trip over! Thanks Auggie, I really appreciate this."

"No problem, that's what brothers are for. Now, I'm off to bed. See you in the morning. Good night."

"Night Augs." Josh said as he started setting up the bed. Half an hour later both Andersons were fast asleep.

* * *

><p>The next morning Auggie was woken by the scent of coffee, bacon, eggs and hash browns tickling his nose. It took him a second to remember his brother's late night arrival and realize that Josh was probably trying to make up for his unannounced arrival by cooking breakfast. Auggie stretched and got out of bed, after a quick detour to the bathroom he entered the living room and headed for the kitchen area where he heard Josh moving around.<p>

"Good morning, playing breakfast chef this morning?" Auggie said as he headed for the coffee maker. He got a mug off the shelf above it and poured himself a cup before sitting down on one of the stools by the kitchen island.

"Mornin' bro. It's the least I can do after showing up here in the middle of the night." Auggie heard a plate being put down in front of him. "Hash browns at seven, bacon at twelve and eggs at five. Fork and a napkin to the right." Josh stated as he sat down next to Auggie with his own plate.

"Thanks," Auggie said as he picked up the fork and started eating. "Damn you're good, forgot how great your breakfasts are," he said after a few bites.

"One of the perks of working as a short order cook in college I guess, at least if you like the greasy spoon kind of food," Josh answered as he dug into his own plate of food. "It's not exactly healthy."

"That's true, but from time to time it's damn good. As long as you don't eat like this all the time it's not a problem I think. So, does this mean you'll stay here 'til you leave town on Tuesday?"

"If you don't mind. It seems like the conference I'm going to have most of the hotels in town fully booked and the few rooms available are totally overpriced."

"It's not a problem, just remember what I told you last night and we'll get along just fine. Now, you cooked, so I'll clean the kitchen while you shower and get dressed, ok?"

"I've put everything in the sink, it just needs a good rinse before you put it in the dishwasher." Josh said as he walked over to his suitcase to retrieve a change of clothes and his toiletry bag.

"By the way Aug, who was the gorgeous blonde that left here as I arrived last night? You have a girlfriend?"

"Annie is a co-worker, we're not dating. I've only known her for about a month, but she's cool and you know me; I always help a lady in trouble. She lives in her sister's guesthouse and they got into a fight yesterday and needed a drinking buddy. I volunteered."

"Oh, well you realize she's really hot? Like in HOT," Josh said, nudging Auggie with his elbow.

"I have a feeling, knowing how men react to her when we've been out together. She seems to get lots of attention from men. At the moment I'm happy to have her as a friend."

* * *

><p>An hour later they were both dressed and sitting on the sofa with a cup of coffee and their iPads, Auggie with his Braille display on his lap and iPad on the coffee table. They were both catching up on the news and checking their email.<p>

"How's that new job of yours going? Tech Support at a translation company, is it?" Josh asked.

"It's ok, but it seems like it's a bit too much work for one person to manage. I'm not only doing Tech Support, I'm practically responsible for all of the Tech in D.C. office working. It's crazy sometimes, I've been working 10-12 hour days lately and I'm still behind on stuff. I should go to the office today, I hate starting a new week behind, but I'm just tired from working so much, I need the time off." Auggie sighed and put the Braille display on the coffee table next to the iPad. "I think I need to talk to my boss about the workload, but I'm a bit apprehensive about it."

"Why? If it's too much work for one person they should hire another tech and divide the work between you, or make you head of the section and let you hire an assistant. Something should be done, it's just bullshit that you should have to work 60 hour weeks to get it all done."

"I don't want him to think that I can't do the job because of my disability." Auggie admitted.

"Augs, they wouldn't have hired you if they didn't think you could do the job. In my opinion you're actually overqualified for that kind of work."

"You're probably right about that, but getting a job isn't easy for anyone and useless eyes and a white cane doesn't exactly help. I was about to give up when I got the offer. At least I'm back in the workforce, doing something useful and getting paid for it." Auggie shrugged. "Anyway, do you have any plans for the day?"

"Not really, thought I'd spend the day with Valerie, didn't I."

"Do you wanna go to a baseball game? I think the Nationals are playing this afternoon."

"Sure, I always enjoy a good ballgame, but it's a shame that the Cubs aren't playing," Josh mock pouted about his favorite team not playing.

"You're in DC, so adapt. Just cheer for the home team."

* * *

><p>When the game ended Josh lead Auggie towards the Taxicab stand outside Nationals Park. They were headed for TGI Fridays for dinner and a few more beers. The unexpected visit from his older brother had made this the best weekend Auggie had since moving back to DC. It had crossed Auggie's mind more than once since Josh arrived was that choosing to do his rehab at the Hines VA hospital in Illionis had been a good decision. He'd involved his family from the beginning and he'd spent several weekends during rehab at his parents house. The result was that they were pretty comfortable around each other. It made things much easier. His first thought had been to go for a place closer to DC, but the social worker at Walter Reed had pushed for Hines for two reasons; the first ones was that it was one of the best blind rehab facilities in the US, the second was being close to his family. When he agreed to go there it was the first argument that won him over, but in retrospect the second reason had turned out to be just as important. At one point he'd considered selling the condo in DC and maybe moving to Chicago, but he'd realized that living that close to his parents would probably mean having his mother all over his life. Having a two and a half hour flight between himself and his family gave him the desired distance and room to rebuild his own life without constant interference from his protective mother. This weekend had him feeling that he was actually getting somewhere.<p> 


	5. An unexpected offer

**Well, since I don't really have anything clever to write in todays AN I'll just drop it and let you read the story. Reviews, alerts etc are greatly appreciated! :)**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Annie and Auggie, or Covert Affairs for that matter.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 5<strong>

Friday, June 18th 2010

A couple of months after Josh's unexpected visit Auggie's workload hadn't diminished; if anything it had gotten worse. Pulling 10-12-hour workdays seemed more the rule than the exception and he regularly worked on the weekends just to stay afloat. The servers were old, outdated and required constant attention. The staff laptops weren't much better. They needed to upgrade the equipment - badly. He knew he needed to talk to his boss about both the workload and the bad state of the equipment, but he dreaded that meeting and kept postponing it.

He was in the middle of cleaning up a very virus infected laptop when his office phone rang; it wasn't the support line, but his private line.

"Anderson."

"This is Jill in Mr. Campbells office. Arthur would like to see you in his office at 1 o'clock today."

"I'll be there, but…eh…could you describe how I get there from the main elevator? I've never been up there before and I'm blind, so reading the signs is kind of a challenge."

"I'll just meet you by the elevator at 12:55, it's kind of a maze up here. It's easier that way. Ok?"

"Thanks. See you at 12:55."

"Good." Jill ended the call.

Auggie leaned back in his chair, his mind was racing; what on earth did the CEO of Trusted Translations want? Auggie's closest superior was Arthur Campbell's wife; she was in charge of the DC office of Trusted Translations. Auggie knew that head office of Trusted Translations was in the floor above the DC office, he'd dealt with a couple of support requests from there, but since the staff brought their laptops to him he'd never been up there. His thoughts kept wandering through the morning and he struggled to keep focus on his work. Butterflies the size of elephants was swarming around his stomach.

* * *

><p>At 12:45 he got his cane out and headed for the elevator. When he exited the elevator on the floor above he heard footsteps approaching. A woman wearing stilettos, he assumed it was Jill.<p>

"Mr. Anderson, right?" He recognized Jill's voice and shifted his cane into his left hand and extended his right in her direction.

"Unless white canes are becoming fashionable, I'm your guy. Auggie Anderson."

He was rewarded with a firm handshake and a small laugh.

"Jill Stevens. Pleasure to meet you," she said as she broke the handshake and brushed her hand against the back of Auggie's. Auggie was a bit taken aback and hesitated a bit before grasping her elbow. He must have looked as surprised as he felt, because she spoke before he could get a word out.

"My cousin is blind," she explained. "I'm a pretty decent sighted guide."

They walked to Mr. Campbell's office in silence; Auggie was focused on where they were going, hoping to be able to retrace his steps when he left the office. Jill slowed down and then came to a stop, Auggie heard her knocking on what he assumed was the doorjamb into Mr. Campbell's office.

"Arthur, Auggie Anderson is here."

"Great. Show him in."

"The desk is about twelve feet into the room, straight ahead. There are two chairs in front of it." Jill whispered. With a grateful smile in her direction Auggie cautiously let go of her arm and shifted his cane back to his right hand and stepped cautiously in to the office, cane sweeping slowly in front of him. He'd never been there before, so it was complete unfamiliar territory, which was always daunting to him. Auggie didn't want to appear inept. He'd heard rumors that Mr. Campbell had been one of the people that were less than thrilled about hiring him, but he'd never met the man. His cane made contact with what he assumed was one of the chairs in front of the desk and he cautiously took another step.

"Good to see you Mr. Anderson. Please have a seat." Auggie assessed the chair in front of him and sat down, while folding his cane and placing it next to his right thigh in the chair.

"I guess you're curious about why I called you in here?"

"A little, yes." Auggie tried to keep his nerves out of his voice and sound relaxed.

"First I have to apologize to you, when Joan told me she'd hired a blind guy as Tech Support I didn't see how you'd be able to do your job efficiently and I thought you'd slow us down. She told me that Jeff in HR was highly impressed with you, but I wasn't convinced, no matter how qualified you are. You've proven me wrong and I'm very satisfied with your work. According to my wife the word around the office is that you're doing a great job. Everyone I've talked with seems to think that you're extremely helpful and always do your best to solve things as soon as possible. I've noticed that the servers and office network seems to be running smoothly as well."

Auggie was speechless. He had not expected this kind praise at all.

"Anyway, the company is making some changes to our IT department. At the moment each local office is running in a similar fashion to here. This has proven to be a very inefficient way of running things. The state our equipment varies too much, I know we're overdue for an upgrade here in DC, but in Albuquerque everything is brand new. The company has grown quite a lot over the last few years and we haven't really had a plan on setting up our tech. That's going to change. We're investing in a totally new system, which will be run from our head office here. It's a major investment, but one that needs to be done if we're going to keep growing like we have lately."

"That's great news sir. The equipment here is very outdated and higher maintenance than necessary. I was intending on bringing up with Joan."

"I'd like to offer you the position of Head of IT for the entire company, not just the DC office. With your education and background you're overqualified for a Tech Support position, it's a waste of your skills and knowledge and we like to take full advantage of our employee's abilities here at Trusted Translations. It will mean a significant bump in pay and more responsibilities. You'll also be in charge of the new team of Tech Supports we're hiring, as well as the Tech Supports around the country. You'll be part of the management group, you'll report to me, not Joan."

"I don't know what to say. This was totally unexpected." Auggie was shocked.

"I suggest you take the weekend to think about it. I need an answer by noon Monday." Auggie heard the dismissal in her voice and rose from his seat, extending his hand towards his boss.

"Thank you Arthur. I'll have an answer for you first thing Monday morning," he said with a smile.

"Very well. Have a good weekend Auggie. See you on Monday."

* * *

><p>Auggie walked back to the Tech Support office in a daze. Part of him was thrilled about the promotion; it was the kind of job he'd been working towards for a long time. Another part of him was scared about taking on that much responsibility. Was he really ready for it this soon? And how would the new Tech Support team feel about having a blind boss? A familiar knock on his doorjamb and the smell of grapefruit pulled him out of his thoughts.<p>

"Annie Walker," he said as he turned in his chair to face her.

"Hi Augs, you hungry?"

Auggie realized he was actually starving. "Yep, going to the food court?"

"That was the plan. Want to join me?"

"Sure." Auggie grabbed his cane and wallet from their place in the top drawer and got out of his chair.

"You're awfully quiet today, what's on your mind?" Annie asked as they started eating fifteen minutes later. Auggie seemed to be lost in his own little world. He'd barely spoken since they left his office, where he'd normally make a little sarcastic comment he'd barely said "mhm" or something similar.

"I'd rather not talk about it here, have any plans tonight?"

"Not really, just the regular Friday night beers at the Tavern I guess."

"Well, how about pizza and beers at my place and I'll tell you all about it. I could actually need some advice."

"Sounds great. I have to admit that I'm really curios. Why are you being so secretive?"

"It's just not something I feel like discussing here, in the middle of a crowded food court if you don't mind. It's not bad news though, I'll tell you that much."

"I was planning on leaving at about 6 pm, is that ok?"

"Sure, I'll be ready. For once it has been kind of a slow day," Auggie said with a small sigh as he turned his attention back to his stir fry.

* * *

><p>"So, do you plan on telling me what's on your mind anytime soon?" Annie asked as she settled down on Auggie's sofa. She watched as Auggie grabbed two beers out of the fridge and settled down in the chair across from her.<p>

"I had a meeting with Arthur Campbell today…" he started.

"Arthur Campbell? As in Joan's husband, the CEO of Trusted Translations?" Annie cut him off, her voice laced with surprise.

"Yep, that would be the one. It was one of the strangest meetings I've ever had. He started with apologizing for not believing that I was capable of doing my job because I'm blind and ended offering me the position as Head if IT for the entire company, not just the DC office. I'd be part of the management group and I'll be in charge of all Tech Support staff nationwide. Apparently they're restructuring the entire IT division of the company."

"Wow, that's amazing Auggie! You're taking it, right?"

Auggie took a hefty swig of his beer and placed the bottle on the coffee table in front of him. He leaned back in the chair and pulled his hands through his hair, messing the unruly brown curls up even more than usual. After taking a deep breath he leaned forward, resting his forearms on his thighs.

"I don't know Annie. I honestly don't know if I'm ready for it. Let's face it, I haven't even been blind for a year, I'm still adjusting and I feel like I'm barely keeping my head above the water in the position I have now."

"Well, I do see where you're coming from, but still, it's a great opportunity. Won't you regret not taking it?"

"Sure, I'd regret it, I know I would, it's the kind of position that's been one of my goals. The thing is that I'm afraid of making the mistake of taking on too much too soon. I'm sure not ready for failing miserably, I've had enough adversity to deal with the last year." Auggie was surprised at how candid he was with Annie, usually he kept things close to the vest, but for some reason he trusted her and it just felt right to confess in her. He needed to talk this over with someone, and he didn't feel like calling his parents or any of his brothers just yet. He needed to process it a bit for himself first.

Annie didn't know what to say. For the three months she'd known Auggie he'd barely told her anything personal, except for a very short version of his life story the first time they had lunch together. Even if he kept things shut off Annie knew that even if he usually appeared confident he was struggling, that the situation he now found himself in was hard for him to deal with. He'd revealed his insecurity and feelings of inadequacy to her a couple of times.

"Well, you have the weekend to think about it, right?"

"Mhmm…"

"Well, _think_ about it! Call your parents or your brothers and ask for advice. Just don't write it off just yet, ok?"

"I guess you're right. Now, how about that pizza?"


	6. Fatherly advice

**I struggled a bit to get this chapter down, it just wouldn't come together the way I wanted it to. It's finally at a point where I'm satisfied with it. The next one is giving me just as much trouble, so don't send hate mail if it takes a while before I update again. My imagination is just not on my side these days. The Auggie/Parker relationship has triggered some ideas, but I think I need to see a bit more of it before writing them out. Maybe after tonight's episode, Devin Kelley is on the guest star list so I guess we'll see some more of her and Auggie. In an interview with Chris Gorham he said that there will be a couple of very personal moments between them that will reveal more about Auggie's personality and the kind of man he is. I'm very curious about what it might be and I can't wait to see it. I'm also very curious about how the revelation of the Auggie/Parker relationship will affect the Auggie/Annie relationship. **

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Covert Affairs, Auggie, Annie, Joan or Arthur.**

* * *

><p><strong><span>Chapter 6<span>**

Saturday, June 19th 2010

When Auggie woke up Saturday morning he instantly regretted the large amount of alcohol he and Annie had ended up consuming the previous night. After spilling all of his thoughts and worries regarding his promotion to Annie he'd decided it was a good idea to drink so much that he hopefully forgot his dilemma, at least for long enough to get a good nights sleep. It had kind of worked, but he wasn't so sure it was worth it. His head was throbbing and the smallest movements were painful. Staying in bed seemed like a good idea, but his bladder told him he had to make his way to the bathroom. He slowly sat up and pulled the covers back. He had an instant urge to lie back down, but instead he swung his legs out over the edge of the bed and got to his feet. His head was spinning and he struggled to get his bearings as he carefully made his way across the floor and found the bathroom door after tripping over his jeans. He'd obviously been drunk enough to forget that to just leave his clothes in a heap in the middle of the floor is a bad idea for a blind guy.

After washing his hands a few minutes later he located a bottle of strong painkillers in his medicine cabinet. He'd gotten the prescription when he was discharged from Walter Reed and he'd generally tried to avoid taking them. He'd never been a fan of taking painkillers if he could manage without them, but today he felt that he needed to. He was on the border of not functioning and he had too much to think about to waste the day hung-over in bed, which truthfully was the only thing he felt he could manage at the moment. He got two pills out of the bottle and went for the kitchen where he poured himself a glass of water and swallowed the pills. Then he went back to bed to wait for the pills to do their job. He drifted off to a slumber as soon as his head hit the soft down pillows.

* * *

><p>"Annie-Walker…Annie-Walker…Annie-Walker….." The mechanical voice of his landline phone pulled him out of his slumber a couple of hours later. He realized that his head didn't feel as bad as it did a while ago, the painkillers and some sleep usually did the trick and it seemed like it was working. He reached out and groped around his bedside table until he located the phone and answered.<p>

"Hey…" was all he could manage.

"Good, you're alive! I just had to check after all the Patron you had last night." Annie said cheerily.

"Barely, how much did I drink last night? And more to the point, didn't you drink too? Were you just enjoying watching me getting wasted? You sound way better than I feel." Auggie rolled over to lie on his back and let his head sink back into the pillows.

"A six pack of beer and quite a few shots of Patron. I honestly lost count. I had just as much as you, I'm just one of those lucky few that rarely gets hangovers. As long as I steer clear of sparkling wines I'm usually fine as long as I drink a lot of water before going to bed. You're obviously less fortunate, at least that's what it sounds like." Her voice was slightly teasing at the end of the sentence.

"Oh har… Very funny miss Walker. I wasn't conscious enough to drink water before going to bed; I think I basically passed out right after you left. I somehow managed to get out of my jeans and shirt and into some sleepwear, can't really remember how. All I know is that I left my clothes in a heap in the middle of the floor and almost fell on my face when I tripped over them on my way to the bathroom this morning."

"Well, I've gotta go, just wanted to make sure you were alive. Talk to you later."

"Later." Auggie ended the call and put the phone back in the cradle. With a bit of effort he got out of bed and headed for the bathroom. He needed a shower and his teeth felt like they were growing fur. After a long shower, towel drying his hair and brushing his teeth he pulled on a pair of sweatpants and a sweatshirt and headed for the kitchen. He needed coffee. Strong coffee.

* * *

><p>Half an hour and two cups of strong coffee later Auggie was feeling almost human. There was still a slight throbbing in the back of his head and he still felt slightly hung-over, but not nearly as bad as when he woke up earlier in the morning. He decided it was time to call his father for some advice. He always seemed to know what to do. He refilled his coffee mug and grabbed the phone from the cradle by the coffee maker. He carefully set the mug down on the coffee table before flopping down on the sofa while pushing 2 on his speed dial. Martin Anderson picked up the phone on the 3rd ring.<p>

"Auggie! How are you doing son?"

"Hi Dad. Not too bad. How's everything in Glencoe?"

"Everything is well here, business as usual."

"Listen Dad, I need some advice and I was hoping you could give me some."

"Sure, I'll do my best. What's going on?"

"I've been offered a promotion at work and I'm not sure what to do."

"That's great news Aug. Why wouldn't you take it?" Pride and happiness was evident in his father's voice.

"Because I don't know if I'm ready for it. It's a major promotion, with lots of more responsibility."

"What exactly is the position?"

"Head of IT of the entire company, nationwide, not just the DC office. They're restructuring the IT department and want me to run it. I'll be in charge of a team of Tech Supports they're hiring and the Tech Supports in our local offices around the country. It's a huge responsibility," Auggie sighed slightly at the end of the sentence.

"It sounds like it's right up your alley, hasn't this kind of job been one of your goals since you graduated from college?"

"Umm…well, yes, but I didn't exactly add being blind into my goals. Things are kind of different now you know."

"Auggie, I think you can do anything you set your mind on and I honestly think you're a fool if you don't take the promotion. Your skills are wasted doing a mere Tech Support job. I realize why you accepted that job, I know you struggled to get a job, but now your employer is recognizing your capabilities. Why are you so insecure about this?"

"Because I'm not sure that I'm ready for this much responsibility this soon. It's barely been a year since Tikrit and I've only been back to work for a little over three months. Sometimes I feel like I'm barely keeping my head above water where I am. I don't really see how taking on a lot more responsibility will work out."

"Son, listen to me. When your mother and I first learned what had happened to you in Iraq and later got the news that you were permanently blind we were worried about you."

"Of course you were worried, you're my parents for God's sake," Auggie said with an exasperated sigh, not understanding where his father was going with this.

"Of course, that's obvious, but we were ignorant and didn't think it would be possible for you to get back to a 'normal' life. I was pretty sure you'd end up moving in with us, I didn't see how a blind person could live independently. As time passed and I learned more, I realized it's possible, but I wanted you to stay in the area, close to us. I was very worried when you were so set on moving back to DC, but for the past six months you've proven that you're capable of living on your own. You have to realize how immensely proud we are of you Auggie."

Auggie didn't know what to say. This conversation was turning out to be much more emotional than Auggie had anticipated and he located his coffee mug and took a zip, hoping to swallow the huge lump that was building in his throat.

"Son, you were offered the job because they think you're capable of doing it. Take it. You'll regret it if you don't, I know you will. You'll do just fine, I know you will."

"Thanks Dad. Now, is Mom there?"

"Sorry, she's over at Steve's place, watching the girls."

"Ok, tell her I said hi."

"I will. Aug, please try to call her a little more often, she worries and I think hearing your voice from time to time would make things easier on her."

"I'll try. I've just been so busy with work lately that it's kind of slipped my mind."

"I get that, but just try, ok?"

"Yes Dad. Thanks for hearing me out."

"Any day son. Just call, I'm here. Love you son."

"Love you to Dad. Later."

"Bye Auggie." Auggie ended the call.

* * *

><p>He went to refill his coffee again and sat back on the sofa, this time he turned on the stereo, it was a bit too quiet in the apartment. His thoughts drifted to his conversation with Annie last night, his meeting with Arthur Campbell and to the conversation with his father. Annie and his father were right; the promotion was a great opportunity. Deep down he knew that he was qualified for the position, his background and education was perfect for that kind of job. It was the fear of failing that held him back. He realized that most obstacles he'd faced and overcome the last year were way more daunting than the promotion. When the doctors told him he was permanently blind his first thoughts had been that his life was over. At some point during rehab he realized that it wasn't necessarily the case. When he finished rehab and decided to move back to DC he still wasn't sure, the struggle to find a job hadn't exactly helped boost his confidence, but being given a major promotion after a little over three months at the company was a vote of confidence. He realized that he was about to achieve one of his career goals. The more he thought about it the more it became clear to him that he needed to take the job, he needed to move on, to not let the explosion in Iraq and his disability hold him back.<p> 


	7. Anniversary, but no celebration

**I've done some clean up of chapters 1-6, no changes to the story, just edited some mistakes that have been called to my attention as well as some I've discovered on my own. I've also added dates to the story, to make it easier to follow the timeline. This was a suggestion from my beta and I think it works well.**

**I still have some Auggie/Parker ideas floating in my head, but I still need to see more of their relationship and of Parker to write them out. I don't think they will be written until after the season finale. **

**For the ones that have "Moving on, or maybe not" on their alerts and that might have read it; I'm so so sorry for not updating that story. I've just hit a major road block on that story and I seriously don't have any ideas for how to take it forward. I have no idea when I'll write the next chapter in that story.**

**Here's chapter 7, it's kind of part 1 of a 2 part story. The 2nd part is well under way, I hope to have it up by Wednesday.**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Covert Affairs.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 7<strong>

Friday, July 24th 2010

Auggie was pretty much settled in to his new office a few doors down from the old Tech Support office. According to Annie's description he now had a decent size office with windows that provided plenty of natural light and a view (like it mattered to him) that was connected to a bigger office with eight desks in it. That was the domain of the newly hired Tech Supports, Auggie's new team. The offices were divided by a glass wall with a sliding door in it. A smaller, windowless room off the Tech Support team's office held the new company server park and Auggie's old office served as temporary storage for the new laptops they would be rolling out to the staff in the DC office and head office over the next few weeks. They were starting in DC and his team would then split up in pairs and travel to the regional offices to do the set up each office in co-operation with the local Tech Support. The Tech Support personnel from the regional offices were coming to DC for a seminar to be trained in the new setup in about a week. Auggie would be running most of it and he was pretty nervous. He still found it a bit surreal to be in this position, but so far the five men and three women that were now his subordinates didn't seem to mind having a blind boss. There'd been the regular morbid curiosity to start with, but they all seemed to roll with it, they actually seemed to like and respect him. He didn't know how the Tech Supports from the regional offices would react to him, but he knew it wasn't any way around it. He just had to deal with it.

The job wasn't as daunting as he first thought it would be; it was challenging, but in a good way, his father had been right; it was right up his alley, and as long as he kept delegating tasks to his team it seemed that his workload was actually diminishing and for the first time in a while Auggie had left the office on schedule three times in the last week. It had been a couple of months since the last time that happened. The significant jump in pay was a very welcome perk of the job, the Tech Support position had paid ok, but it was less than he'd made in his last job before Iraq and he'd been thankful that he had his military pension as well. Now he was actually making quite a bit more than he did before Iraq and he'd decided to put the military pension into his savings account.

#####################

A familiar knock on the doorjamb and the sound of stilettoes crossing the floor got his attention. He slid the headphones down to hang around his neck and swiveled in his chair to face Annie, smiling broadly.

"Miss Walker, what did I do to earn the pleasure of your company?"

"It's Friday and I was just wondering if you were coming to the Tavern tonight?"

Just as Annie asked it dawned on him; tomorrow was actually the anniversary of the explosion in Iraq that took his sight. It had slipped his mind completely with everything that had been going on lately, but the sudden realization made a range of emotions wash over him. One thing was for sure; he wanted to be alone for the weekend.

"I'm not up for it today. I just wanna be alone this weekend. I'll just call the car service and get a car to take me home." The smile was gone and his eyes had darkened. Annie was a bit shocked by the sudden change in Auggie's mood and didn't understand where it was coming from.

"Aug, is everything ok? What's wrong?" she asked with concern lacing her voice.

"I'm fine. I just need some Auggie time," he answered, a bit too fast and harsh.

"Auggie, something's bothering you, I can tell. I might not have known you for more than a few months, but I know you pretty well by now. What's wrong?"

"Would you please back off? I'm FINE! Just leave me alone this weekend, ok?"

Auggie was starting to get angry at Annie persistence; why couldn't she just drop it and leave him alone? This was something he needed to deal with on his own. With an exhasperated sigh Annie got up from where she was perched on the edge of Auggie's swanky new glass desk and headed for the door.

"Fine, whatever you want. I'll pick you up as usual Monday morning then?"

"Sure. See you then. Thanks." Auggie put the headphones back on and turned back to his computer. He quickly went to the car service website and booked a car to pick him up and take him home at 5:30 in the afternoon. Then he turned his attention back to the project he'd been working on when Annie entered the office, trying his best to keep his thoughts strictly at the task in hand.

As Annie left Auggie's office and started walking back to her desk her mind was spinning; what the hell just happened? She just couldn't figure out why Auggie's mood had changed like that in a split second. He'd seemed genuinely happy to see her when she came in to his office and in a split second it seemed to change. His eyes went dark, the smile vanished from his face and his jaw clenched. Something was clearly bothering him, but at the moment he was not letting her in on it and knowing how he liked to keep things private and rarely shared anything personal she knew not to push it. She knew he had lots of reservations about accepting the promotion, but in the weeks since he'd started his new job those reservations seemed to have vanished. She'd seen how he seemed a bit insecure for the first few days, but when the initial nerves had worn off and his team appeared to accept him he'd pretty much been back to normal. His easy smile, small jokes and sarcastic comments were back.

#####################

Later that evening as she drove home from the Tavern she started thinking about Auggie again and she started putting together a timeline in her head. He'd been working at Trusted Translations for about four months, he'd told her that he'd been searching for a job for about three months; he'd spent four months in rehab and a few weeks at Walter Reed just after he returned from Iraq. Could it be the anniversary of the day he lost his sight? Worry filled Annie. Her initial thought was to turn around and go to Auggie's place but something held her back. He'd been very clear about wanting to be left alone for the weekend and for now she decided to respect his wishes. At least until she'd asked Danielle for some advice; her older sister always knew what to do.

####################

Somehow Auggie made it through the last few hours of the workday, but it was a relief when he could power down his computer, pack his messenger bag, grab his cane and head home. As he walked down the hall towards the elevators he prayed that he wouldn't run into someone that wanted to small talk on the elevator. Thankfully he didn't meet anyone and the driver wasn't the talkative kind either. As he slid the heavy door to his apartment closed behind him he let a sigh of relief escape. He secured the locks, put his keys, employee ID and cane in their place on the tray on the kitchen island, before setting his messenger bag down on the chair by his desk. He went into his bedroom and quickly changed from his work clothes and into a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. He was spending the evening alone and he might as well be comfortable. He grabbed a beer out of the fridge and flopped down on the sofa. Auggie quickly downed it and regretted that he didn't just take the entire six-pack with him. He reluctantly got up and headed back to the fridge. This time he brought the rest of the six-pack with him and after setting it down on the coffee table he went back to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of Patron and a shot glass form the cabinets. He figured he wouldn't have to get up from the sofa for a while. He located the remote for his sound system and soon the sounds of AC/DC filled Auggie's apartment and he focused his attention on drinking, which would hopefully keep the memories of that faithful day a year ago away.

* * *

><p><span>Saturday, July 25<span>th 2010

Annie woke early, she hadn't really gotten that much sleep, the thoughts about Auggie had kept her awake most of the night. She decided it was time to ask Danielle for some sisterly advice. Annie pulled on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt and headed over to the main house where she found Danielle in the kitchen. Annie was happy she was alone; it meant that she could talk to her without interruption.

"Good morning Danielle," she greeted her sister as she headed over to the coffee maker and poured herself a cup of coffee before settling down on one of the stools by the kitchen island.

"Mornin' sis! Sleep well?"

"Not really, I'm worried about a friend."

"Oh, someone I know? What's going on?"

"Remember I told you about Auggie? The new guy at work?"

"The blind guy who started a few months ago? What's up?"

"Yeay, Auggie's 'the blind guy', not that he appreciates being seen as that. Well, he's the kind of guy that keeps things close to the vest and he rarely shares anything personal, but he got promoted a month back and he actually opened up to me about his concerns about taking the promotion. Yesterday I went by his office in the afternoon to ask him if he wanted to come to the Tavern like he usually does on Friday night. He seemed perfectly happy when I walked into his office, big smile and everything. All of a sudden his mood changed, it was like turning a switch. He told me he wanted to be left alone for the weekend, that he needed some 'Auggie-time'. When I asked what was wrong he got kind of mad and told me to back off and leave him alone."

"Okay, have you got an idea about what might be bothering him?"

"Well, at first I didn't, but then I started thinking and I actually think it's the anniversary of the day he lost his sight this weekend. It adds up with what he's told me about his background. I'm worried about him Danielle."

"Hmm…," Danielle said thoughtfully. "Does he have any family or close friends in the area that might be there for him? Are you sure he's alone?"

"I think all of his family lives in the Chicago area and from what I know his friends have kind of drifted away. He said something about the white cane driving them away one time."

"It's a tough one Annie. Part of me thinks that you should go over there and check on him, but on the other hand it might not be a good idea if he wants to be left alone."

"That's kind of what I'm thinking too. I'm worried about him, but I don't really know if it's a good idea to just drop by unannounced. He might not like it at all and I don't want to loose him as a friend."

"I'm sorry, but I don't really have any advice for you. I don't know Auggie so I have no idea how he'll react if you drop by. If he's told you he wants to be left alone, maybe you should respect that?"

Annie sighed and got off the stool.

"I'm just worried, which is probably silly. I'm going for a run, hopefully that will clear my head. See you later."

"See you later Annie."

* * *

><p>Across town Auggie was fast asleep. After his third beer and second shot of patron the previous night he'd decided to stop drinking. In a moment's clarity he'd realized that getting wasted wouldn't really help anything. Instead he'd opted for a sleeping pill and had gone to bed early. He wasn't a fan of relying on medication, but he didn't want to risk the dreams he feared would come that night. The nightmares that had haunted him every night during the first months after the explosion in Iraq had grown farther and farther apart, and after he went back to work he'd only had a few of them. "Mom-and-Dad…Mom-and-Dad…Mom-and…" the mechanical voice of landline phone on his bedside table slowly pulled him from his sleep. By the time he was awake the ringing had ceased. He growled into his pillow and rolled over onto his back before sitting up while rubbing his eyes. He fumbled around the bedside table and located the speech button on his alarm clock. "10:45 am" the clock announced, Auggie decided it was time to get up, got to his feet and headed for the bathroom.<p>

#################

20 minutes later he was sitting on his sofa with a mug of coffee in one hand and phone in the other. He pushed 2 on his speed dial and had a sip of coffee while waiting for his parents to pick up the phone. As he put the mug down on the coffee table his mother answered the phone.

"August, how are you? Why didn't you pick up when I called a while ago?" Lynne Anderson's voice was laced with maternal worry.

"I'm fine Mom. I was asleep and by the time I woke up enough to realize the phone was ringing you'd hung up." Auggie realized his voice was still slightly husky from sleep.

"Are you sure you're fine? Considering what day it is and everything? And since when are you such a heavy sleeper? You used to wake up from nearly nothing."

"Mom, really I'm fine. Don't worry. I'm still a light sleeper, I just took some meds last night to help me sleep, they knocked me out."

"August, if you need medication to get a good nights sleep you're not ok. I'll fly out to DC this afternoon if you need me."

"I don't need you to fly out here Mom and I usually don't use sleep medication, it was just a precaution, knowing the date and all…you know…"

"Are you sure August? Are you really ok? You don't have to be strong for me honey."

"Mom, I'm not 100% ok, but I'll get through it. I've known that this day was coming and I know it won't be easy, but I'll be fine. Just give me some space, please."

"Just so you know; we're proud of you August. I'm amazed at how far you've come, so is your father and the rest of the family."

"I know Mom, thanks. I'll call you tomorrow, ok?"

"I love you August."

"Love you too Mom. Tell Dad I said hi."

"I will. Bye."

"Bye Mom." Auggie hung up the phone and a few seconds later he dialed Annie's number. After 10 rings it went to voicemail and he hung up. "Damn," he thought. "She's probably pissed after my little temper tantrum yesterday. Great job Augs, you've managed to drive away the only real friend you've got at the moment." With a heavy sight he put the phone back down on the table and leaned back on the sofa. This was going to be a long day.


	8. Best friends

**This chapter was hard to write and I don't really have anything to write in the AN, so here's the story. ;)**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Covert Affairs!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 8<strong>

Saturday, July 25th 2010

After a long run Annie headed for the shower. The run hadn't provided her with the clarity she'd hoped for about what to do about her worries for Auggie. Part of her still wanted to go over there, but she was afraid it would be overstepping his boundaries and she didn't want to risk their friendship. At the same time she felt like a bad friend for not doing anything. Just as she got out of the shower she heard her cell phone ringing, but by the time she'd wrapped a towel around her body the ringing ceased. She decided to get dressed before calling back and went on to towel dry her hair and pull it together in a ponytail. She quickly put on some mascara before heading to her closet to get dressed. She located her favorite natural colored linen pants and a loose fitting cotton tunic she'd bought the last time she was in India. After getting dressed she headed over to the nightstand and picked up her phone. One missed call from Auggie. She quickly pushed the call button and returned the call.

"Annie-Walker…Annie-Walker…Ann.." Auggie picked up the phone by the third ring.

"Hi Annie," he said a bit tentatively.

"Hey, what's up? Are you ok?" He heard the worry lacing her voice.

"I'm ok I guess. Listen, I'm sorry for snapping at you yesterday, I shouldn't have taken my emotions out on you. That wasn't fair."

"What's going on Auggie? I have an idea, but I might be way off base."

"It's the anniversary of the day I lost my sight, it's been a year today. I don't really know why it bothers me so much, it's just a damn date, right?" He sighed heavily. "I feel sort of stupid for asking this, but I don't really feel like being alone and I have a feeling that just sitting around my place alone might not be a good idea. Wanna do something with me today?"

Annie was a bit surprised, she wondered what had made him do a 180 degree turn; from wanting to be left alone to not feeling like being alone, and didn't respond immediately.

Annie's lack of response had Auggie thinking he'd overstepped his boundaries.  
>"Never mind Annie, you've probably got plans. I'll just read a book or something. Don't worry about me. Talk to you later." He was about to hang up the call when Annie responded.<p>

"Auggie, don't hang up! I don't have plans and I'd love to do something with you. Any ideas? I'm game for anything you want and I'll drive."

"Yeah, might be a good idea if you drive, I don't think you have enough insurance for me to do that." Auggie let out a small laugh, but the joke didn't really come out as he intended to.

"Probably not, huh? So, what do you wanna do?"

"Well, it's the middle of the summer, the weather seems to be decent as far as I can tell. Wanna go to Rock Creek Park, just walk around, maybe grab a bite to eat later somewhere."

"It's acutally a beautiful day, sunny, just a few feathery clouds on a blue sky. I've heard Rock Creek Park is beautiful, I've never been there."

"It's very pretty, I think you'll like it. Just come on over when you're ready then. I just need to change out of the sweats I'm wearing and into something more appropriate. When I got dressed this morning I just intended on veg'ing on the couch for the rest of the weekend."

"I'm pretty much ready to go. I just need to get my bag and tell my sister I'm leaving. I'll be at your place in twenty minutes, half an hour tops."

"See you soon. Thanks Annie."

"No need to thank me Auggie! Be right there!"

* * *

><p>25 minutes later Annie pulled up outside Auggie's apartment building and called him.<p>

"Having second thoughts Walker?"

"Nope, Just wanted to let you know that I'm in the no-parking space outside your building so I can't come up, you've got to come to me. At about your two o'clock from when you come out of the front door. Okay?"

"No problem. Give me five minutes and I'm there."

"Great."

Annie ended the call, turned up the volume on the car stereo and leaned back in her seat. She looked in the rear view mirror to see if Auggie was coming. A few minutes later she saw the front door of his building opening and there he was. He was wearing a pair of worn jeans and a navy blue polo shirt. She watched as he paused to get his bearings, adjusted his direction and headed pretty much straight towards her car. She amazed at how confidently he carried himself with his cane sweeping in front of him. It was very different from the blind people she'd seen moving around tentatively. As he approached the car he slowed down and when his cane struck the back wheel she rolled down the rear passenger window.

"Hey Aug! Front door is about two feet forward."

"Thanks." Auggie trailed the side of the car with the back of his left hand and soon he located the handle on the front passenger door. He opened the door and then quickly folded his cane. With easy movements he settled into the passenger seat and buckled his seatbelt. Soon they were heading for Rock Creek Park. They were both silent during the 20 minute ride.

* * *

><p>"Damn," Annie hissed.<p>

"What?"

"Seems like we're not alone here today. Parking's a nightmare." Annie drove slowly through the aisles, scanning the area for a free space. "Oh, there's one up at the end. Um…Auggie it's kind of narrow, I'll have to park pretty close to the fence, so I think it's better if you get out now. If you just walk about six feet ahead you'll find the fence and you can wait there, ok?"

"Sure." Auggie unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the car. He unfolded his cane and headed for the fence. He found it easily and leaned on it, enjoying the feeling of the warm sun on his face. He heard Annie park the car and soon she approached him and brushed her right hand against his left.

"Just a sec Annie." Auggie folded his cane before grasping Annie's elbow. Soon they were strolling down one of the trails.

"It's beautiful Auggie! You were right, I like it. I take it you've been here before?"

"Yeah, I used to come here a couple of times a week to run."

"Seems like a nice place to run. I usually just run in my neighborhood, but I might consider coming here for variety."

"I did the same thing. Now I'm stuck on the treadmill at the gym. I miss running outside," he said sadly. "You know, feeling the sun on my face and wind in my hair. Even if I can't see it's a nice feeling. Thanks for taking me here."

"You don't need to thank me Auggie. I like the sun in my face and wind in my hair too." She squeezed the hand that was holding on to her arm. They walked in silence for a while. Annie was thinking; there had to be a way she could help Auggie run outside. She needed to look into that; she didn't think him holding her elbow would be very comfortable for any of them.

* * *

><p>"What do you miss the most?" Annie asked tentatively. It was later in the afternoon and they were back at Auggie's place.<p>

"Huh?"

"Sorry. Totally inappropriate, probing question. Forget it."

"Freedom and driving."

"Huh?"

"That's what I miss the most."

"Freedom?"

"Yeah. Even if I'm pretty independent, more independent than I thought was possible, I still miss the freedom I used to have. You know, being able to just go somewhere without planning it. Now that's limited to places I'm familiar with, unless I can get someone to go with me, to guide me. It sucks sometimes."

"I have no idea what you're going through," Annie said quietly. "But I can tell you this; I think you're amazing and you've really impressed me."

"When I got the news I that I was permanently blind had two options; I could go to rehab, learn the skills in needed to live as independently as possible and hopefully get back to something resembling my old life or I could pretty much crawl off and hide for the rest of my life. At that point the last option sounded most tempting, but with the support of my family I decided to give the first one a try. Rehab was hard, the first few weeks were hell and I wanted to give up more than once, but as time passed and I learned more I got more and more determined to get my life back."

"Well, you've succeeded, don't you think? You live independently, take care of yourself and you're doing great professionally."

"I know, and I'm actually kind of proud of that. Sorry for sounding so full of myself, but I am. If anyone told me I'd be where I am today when I woke up at Landstuhl a year ago I would have told'em to stop messing with me. I was sure I'd end up living with my parents or one of my brothers, being a burden, depending on other people for the rest of my life."

"You have every reason to be proud of what you've accomplished and I don't think you're full of yourself. I sense a 'but' in there though."

"Well, there's one thing that's bugging me, not so much since I started working. I've gotten to know people at work and have a social life again, but it's always in the back of my head."

"What is it?"

"You know I lived in DC before I left for Iraq, right? I had friends here and I kind of counted on them to be there for me when I moved back here after I finished rehab. I've only seen them a couple of times since I got back. Both were very awkward and now they just seem to avoid me. I realize that some people might not feel comfortable around me; that they don't know how to act. It still hurts that the people I thought were my friends didn't even try. They act like I have the plague, like I'm contagious or something." Auggie leaned forward, rested his forearms on his thighs and bowed his head. He let out a heavy sigh. Annie moved from the chair she sat in to sit next to him on the sofa and wrapped her arm around him.

"Thanks for being my friend," he said quietly.

"Always," she responded. "Thanks for being _my_ friend. Honestly you're the best friend I've ever had."


	9. Running in Rock Creek Park

**First of all: Thank you for all reviews, alerts, favorite etc. and sorry for not replying to the reviews. I need to get better at that.**

**I'm on a roll with this story and I really enjoy writing it. It's also very slow days at work, our business isn't at its peak during the holiday season, meaning I have some time to spend writing. I won't promise that updates will be this frequent, but as long as I have some ideas I will keep writing.**

**For those of you that follow my other story "Moving on or maybe not"; I apologize for the lack of updates. I have no ideas for that story at the moment, so I have no idea when that will be updated.**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Covert Affairs.**

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><p><strong>-Chapter 9-<strong>

Friday, July 30th 2010

Auggie was walking back to his office after setting up the conference room for the seminar with the Tech Supports from the regional offices. It was starting Monday morning. He was very nervous about it, but he was thoroughly prepared and he'd been through the itinerary with his team and it seemed like he had everything covered. Familiar footsteps coming up from behind made him slow down.

"Hey Auggie, wait up!" Annie called after him. Auggie stopped and turned in her direction.

"Hi Annie, what's up?"

"Not much, do you have any plans tomorrow?"

"Nope, just my regular Saturday routine. Sleeping in, going to the gym, just what I usually do on Saturdays."

"Wanna come with me to Rock Creek Park for a run?"

"My running is done on a treadmill Annie. You know that."

"Doesn't have to be that way Aug. I've done some research and running with a guide is very doable."

"I know that Annie, I did it a few times while I was in rehab. I just haven't had anyone to be my guide since I moved back here." Suddenly it dawned on him. "Wait, are you volunteering to be my guide?"

"Yep, if you trust me that is. It'll probably be more of a jog than a run though; I bet you run faster than me. Still; it's outside, sun on your face and all that stuff."

"Annie, you know I trust you." Annie was one of the few people Auggie trusted implicitly to guide him. He didn't even feel the need to use his cane as a bumper when she was his sighted guide. "I'm just amazed that you'll do that for me. I have a running tether at home. I got it from my instructor at Hines. I actually did some outside runs with my brothers back in Glencoe before I moved back here."

"Great, I was a bit worried about what to use for a tether, but if you've got one we're good."

"Great! Listen, I'd better get back to the office, I still have a few things to prepare before the seminar next week. I'd like to get it done before taking off for the weekend, hopefully I can avoid having to come in tomorrow or Sunday."

"I've got some stuff to finish too, I'll probably leave at about six if you want 'a ride."

"I don't know if I'm ready by then, but drop by my office before you head out. Hopefully I'm ready to go when you're ready."

"Sure, I'll see you later then."

* * *

><p>Annie's knock on his doorjamb got Auggie's attention a couple of hours later.<p>

"Hey, ready to go?"

"If you give me about ten minutes."

"Sure." Annie sat down in the chair by the desk in the corner and pulled her iPad out of her bag. Fifteen minutes later Auggie logged off and powered down his computer.

"Okay, I'm ready," he said as he pulled his cane and wallet out of the top drawer of his desk and then rose from his chair. Annie put the iPad into her bag and put the chair back in front of the desk. A few minutes later she was guiding Auggie to her car and soon they were settled into their seats, heading for the Tavern where they were meeting a few of Auggie's techies as well as some people from the European desk.

###########################

It was nearly midnight when they finally left the Tavern. They'd had such a good time that they'd lost track of time and honestly how much alcohol they'd consumed. By the time they said goodbye to their co-workers they were both well beyond tipsy and on their way to being drunk.

"Annie, I seriously doubt you should drive," Auggie stated as she led him out to the sidewalk.

"You're right, I shouldn't. Man, getting a cab now is going to be a nightmare."

"Where are you going? I'll drop you off." Stu, one of Auggie's techies came up behind them, Annie had noticed that he'd switched from beer to water a couple of hours earlier.

"Thanks Stu, that's really nice of you," Annie said as she flashed him a bright smile.

"Thanks," Auggie smiled at his subordinate.

"My car's just down the block," Stu said as he turned right and started heading down the street. Annie and Auggie followed him. Stu couldn't help smiling. He liked Auggie. Sure, he'd been a bit taken aback at first, when he found out his new boss was blind, but he'd soon realized that Auggie was awesome at his job and that he was a really nice guy. In the month Stu had worked for Auggie he'd proven himself as a great boss as well.

* * *

><p><span>Saturday, July 31<span>st 2010

Auggie woke up earlier than he usually did on Saturdays; despite the amount of alcohol he'd consumed the previous night. The fact that he'd managed to gulp down a large amount of water before passing out and that he'd quit drinking before midnight had probably saved him from a bad hangover. He got out of bed, stretched and headed for the bathroom. After a quick shower he pulled on a pair of sweatpants and went to the kitchen to prepare a much needed pot of coffee. As the coffee brewed he called Annie to check if she was still up for the run she'd promised him yesterday, if not he'd just head to the gym like he usually did.

"Rise and shine Miss Walker," he said as a groggy Annie picked up the phone.

"Gawd Auggie, what time is it?

"About 9:30 am. It's not _that_ early. Are you still up for that run?"

"Of course I am, but can I please have an hour or two to wake up first?"

"Sure, just wanted to make sure you weren't bailing on me."

"No way Auggie. Now, give me a couple of hours and we'll be on our way to Rock Creek Park. Pull out your outside running shoes and that running tether you bragged about yesterday."

"Will do, call me when you're ready."

"See you in a couple of hours."

"Great." Auggie ended the call, pondering over what to do for the next couple of hours. He knew exactly where his running shoes and the tether were, so no worries about that. He decided on going to the gym to do his weight lifting routine. He had a cup of coffee, changed into his gym clothes and grabbed his cane and keys. The gym was just a couple of blocks down from his apartment and the walk there was a good warm up. The fact that he knew the neighborhood so well was one of the reasons was happy he'd decided to stay there. He could pretty much find his way around on his own, without a guide, and that sort of independence felt great.

* * *

><p>"Here we are," Annie said as she pulled the car to a stop in the parking lot at Rock Creek Park. "Ready?"<p>

"Hell's yeah!" Auggie said with a smile. He was clutching the tether and his cane in his right hand, but left the cane on the seat as he got out of the car. Annie got out, locked the car and joined Auggie on the passenger side of the car.

"I think we should start out kind of slow, okay?" Annie sounded a bit nervous.

"Sure, we'll start with just walking, to get used to this, then we'll pick up the pace." Auggie held out the tether in Annie's direction.

"Okay, lets get going," Annie said as she grabbed one end of the tether and they started walking briskly down the trail. Soon their pace had grown to a slow jog and half an hour later they were running at a decent pace. When they pulled to a stop by the parking lot after almost an hour on the trails Auggie had a grin plastered on his face and he pulled Annie into a bear hug.

"Thanks Annie. That was great!"

"It was! As long as the weather permits it I think we should try to do this as often as possible. Running here sure beats the sidewalks around my house."

"I'm game, just call me!"

Annie couldn't help smiling at Auggie's almost childish enthusiasm. Seeing him so happy and excited was great. She couldn't help thinking about how introvert and withdrawn he'd seemed the first time she met him. Even if he had an easy smile, appeared to be confident and had a knack for sarcastic comments she'd realized it was a façade, sort of a defense mechanism, pretty fast. Now he was outgoing, happy and enthusiastic, at least most of the time, and it seemed heartfelt and genuine. Sure, he had his dark moments, like the anniversary of the incident that cost him his sight the previous weekend, but he was only human, and generally he seemed much more at peace and confident than he had just a few months earlier.

######################

"Auggie, would you like to come to dinner at my house tonight? My sister's having this barbecue with a few friends and she's been nagging me about bringing someone," Annie asked as she was driving back to Auggie's apartment.

Auggie cocked his head in her direction.

"Are you asking me on a date?" he asked with a crooked grin.

"If you want it to be, if not it's just a barbecue at my sisters house."

"If you don't mind, I think I'd like it to be a date. Oh, are you cooking?"

"I think I'd like that. And no, I'm not cooking. My caterer sister is cooking."

"Good, you warned me about your cooking, so I was just making sure."

"I'll pick you up at six then."

"I'll be ready."

"Great!" Annie parked outside Auggie's building. "You're home, front door at your 12 o'clock."

"See you later then." Auggie said as he unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the car.

"Looking forward to it!"

Auggie closed the car door and unfolded his cane. Annie watched as he made his way to the front door before pulling back into traffic and headed home.

* * *

><p>At 5:35 in the afternoon Auggie was standing in his walk in closet, wearing nothing but a towel around his waist. He hadn't asked Annie what he should wear, he considered calling Annie to ask, but figured that since it was a barbecue it wasn't very formal. He decided on a pair of khaki slacks topped with a white t-shirt and a cornflower blue V-neck sweater. As he got dressed he couldn't help but feeling a bit nervous. He had been thinking about asking Annie out for a little while, he was sure that he wanted their relationship to move past the friendship zone. He also wanted to take it slow, to make sure it was right for both of them, he didn't want to lose Annie as a friend. She'd become too important to him. He checked the time, 5:52; Annie should be there soon. He ran a comb through his hair, hoping his unruly curls were somewhat in order, and slipped on a pair of brown loafers and headed downstairs to wait for Annie outside. Annie was already sitting in her car right outside and she was blown away when Auggie came out of the front door of his apartment building. He usually wore black and different shades of gray mixed up with jeans. His summer casual khaki slacks and blue sweater was a nice change and the crisp white t-shirt underneath enhanced his tan. She didn't usually think about it, but he was very handsome and the sight of him actually made her heart skip a beat.<p>

#####################

"Danielle, this is Auggie. Auggie, meet my older sister Danielle."

"Nice to meet you Danielle," Auggie put on his most charming smile and stuck his hand out in Danielle's direction.

"Likewise. Nice to finally meet you."

A few minutes later Auggie had been introduced to everyone and they were seated around the table in the backyard, sipping wine and chatting while Danielle's husband was in charge of the barbeque and Danielle was in the kitchen preparing the side dishes.

"Annie, could you come here and help me for a second?" Danielle poked her head out the French doors that led to the kitchen.

"Just a sec, Dani," Annie replied and got up. Annie had a feeling that her sister just wanted a word with her in private, knowing how useless she was in the kitchen Danielle rarely asked for her help.

"Wow Annie, Auggie's a keeper! He's really handsome and seems like a really nice guy," Danielle gushed as soon as Annie set foot in the kitchen.

"Danielle, Auggie's just a friend." Annie hadn't told Danielle that tonight actually was their first date.

"Annie, I'm not an idiot, I see the way you look at him and the way he lights up around you."

"Dani, I like Auggie a lot. Tonight is actually our first official date, but we both agree that we want to take it slow. Either of us wants to loose the other as a friend."

Annie glanced out to the backyard and she was relieved to see that Auggie seemed to be engaged in conversation. She'd been a bit afraid that it might be a bit awkward because of Auggie's blindness, but his confident demeanor and bright smile seemed to have won everyone over. One of Annie's favorite things about him was that he made it easy to forget about his disability, to see past the cane and appreciate his great personality.

"I totally get that. Taking it slow is a good idea, it's what Michael and I did, and look at us now; we've been together for more than 10 years and we're happy and still in love with each other. Well, let's get this food on the table, looks like Michael is about ready for it.

######################

"Auggie, don't be ridiculous, there's no need for you to call a cab."

"It's ok Annie, I feel bad about using you as my personal driver."

"Stop it! I'm taking you home and that's final" Annie leaned in and whispered into Auggie's ear; "I want some alone time with you, please."

"Ok, I surrender." Auggie lifted his hands and smiled. After saying goodbye to Danielle and Michael they settled into Annie's car and she backed out of the drive.

"I hope it wasn't too bad, I keep forgetting that Paul and Lindsay are kind of intense," Annie said apologetically.

"They're not too bad. I actually had fun tonight; not exactly your quintessential first date though. I might have to do something about that," he said with a smile.

"I was hoping you'd say that."

"Keep next Saturday evening blocked off then."

"I will. I expect an awesome date," Annie teased.

"I'll do my best not to disappoint." Auggie's heart skipped a beat; Annie had agreed to go on a second date.

* * *

><p><strong>I had not originally intended on this story to move into the romance genre, but the story just took that direction and it just happened. Hope you don't mind! :o)<strong>


	10. Worst girlfriend in the world?

**I'm sorry for the delay in updating this story AND for this being so short! More to come soon, I promise! :)**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 10<strong>

Friday October 22nd 2010

"Annie, how many times do I have to tell you to place your shoes somewhere I won't trip over them?" Auggie said with an exasperated sigh as he got to his feet. He'd been dating Annie for almost three months and for the last month she'd spent more time at his place than at her own place. As much as he liked having her around she was starting to get on his nerves. He had always been something of a neat freak and being blind had made it essential to keep everything in its place. Annie had a more relaxed approach to things and Auggie felt like he was constantly tripping over her shoes or bag, he'd gotten juice in his coffee more times than he could count lately and he'd mistaken Annie's body lotion for toothpaste a couple of times.

"I'm sorry Auggie, I..."

"You just weren't thinking I know. But Annie, you need to think. I'm blind, I can't see your shoes when you leave them out and I can't see that I'm pouring juice in coffee instead of milk. I have things set up in a specific way and I realize that it can be a hassle, but I need it to be that way."

"Aug, I am trying, I really am. I'm just not a very organized person."

"My toes and shins don't really feel like you're trying very hard," he replied, rolling his eyes at her. That set something inside Annie on fire.

"Well, if I'm such a pain in the ass I'll just get out of your way."

Auggie heard her moving around the living area, probably gathering up her stuff.

"Annie, I didn't mean it that way…" Auggie said as he heard her putting on her Louboutins and opening the front door.

"Good night Auggie." Annie slid the door closed beind her. Auggie heard the sound of her stilettoes stalking angrily down the hallway. For a second he considered grabbing his cane and following her, but he realized it would be useless. She'd probably be halfway home by the time he made it downstairs.

* * *

><p>As Annie pulled out from the parking space in front of Auggie's building she was livid. She was really trying, but no there always seemed to be some little slip up that would cause Auggie to get all riled up. For the last week they'd had several little disagreements, but tonight was the first time they'd ended up in a real fight.<p>

She was still seething when she pulled into the driveway outside her sister's house in Georgetown. Danielle was in the kitchen and noticed that Annie looked like she was about to explode.

"Annie, what's wrong?" she asked as Annie entered the kitchen, she went straight to the freezer and grabbed a pint of Ben & Jerry's and then she got a spoon from the jar on the island. She finally slumped down on one of the stools by the island.

"Auggie. Apparently I'm the worst girlfriend ever just because I forgot to place my shoes out of the way and he tripped over them."

Danielle frowned, there had to be more to the story. She didn't know Auggie that well, but he'd been over for dinner a few times and generally he seemed like a pretty positive, easygoing guy and Danielle couldn't see how he'd get all worked up over an accident. "And? Annie, I know that's not the whole story. Spill."

"Well, as you know I'm not exactly super organized, but Auggie is a total neat freak. If I misplace one thing he gets all worked up."

"Well, I don't know much about being blind, but I would guess that being organized is pretty crucial for him. Have you thought about that?"

"I know, but I'm just sick and tired of it being a one-way street."

"Annie, you're acting like a child. Auggie can't help being blind, it's not something he can change. You on the other hand _can_ work on your tidiness and if you're serious about your relationship with him and intend on moving in with him at some point _you_ will have to adjust your lifestyle to his disability."

"I usually don't even think about the fact that Auggie can't see, it's just part of who he is and it's not a big deal. To me he's Auggie, not Auggie – the blind guy."

"I understand that, I do that too, but I guess some situations do require you to think about it."

* * *

><p>Across town Auggie was sitting in his sofa. It was the first time he'd really had a fight with Annie, they'd had their disagreements, but none that had caused Annie to leave in anger. He hated constantly nagging her about keeping everything in it's place, but it was the way things needed to be and it annoyed the hell out of him that Annie didn't get it and he didn't feel like she was making much of an effort. When she was there he was tempted to use his cane to avoid her traps, but he hated the idea. His apartment was one of a few places he was able to move around freely without it and he didn't want that to change. He sighed and pulled his iPhone and Bluetooth out of his pocket and dialed Annie's number. It was turned off. He dialed her sister's landline phone, feeling a bit desperate and needy, but he couldn't bear the thought of leaving the argument with Annie hanging in the air between them. He wanted to explain to her why he felt the way he did.<p>

"Brooks."

"Danielle, it's Auggie. Is Annie there? I tried her cell, but it's turned off."

"She's out in the guest house, said she was going to bed. Would you like me to give her a message?"

"No, it's ok. I'll just talk to her tomorrow, hopefully she'll cool off by then."

"Auggie, she told me about your argument and I think she's feeling pretty bad about running out on you like she did. She's just a bit stubborn and proud, so she needs a little time to realize it and then admit she's been wrong."

Auggie chuckled softly. "I've noticed that. Will you just let her know I called the next time you see her?"

"No problem, I'll let her know."

"Thanks Danielle. Hopefully I'll see you for dinner tomorrow night."

"See you tomorrow Auggie. I'm sure Annie will call you first thing in the morning."

Auggie ended the call, feeling a bit better. With a sigh he got up from the sofa and went to the fridge to get himself another beer. The evening hadn't exactly turned out as planned. He hoped Danielle was right.


	11. I'm sorry

**I promised to update soon and here it is! It's also a bit on the short side, but I felt it was a natural place to stop. I have the next chapter in the works, it will probably be up by the end of the week.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Covert Affairs, Auggie or Annie.**

* * *

><p><span>Saturday October 23<span>rd 2010

As Annie woke up her argument with Auggie the previous night smacked her in the face and she realized that she'd been totally unreasonable. Danielle's words repeated in her head; "Auggie can't help being blind, it's not something he can change. You on the other hand _can_ work on your tidiness." Danielle was right and Annie felt like an idiot. She knew she had some big time apologizing to do. She jumped out of bed and practically ran to the shower. She got ready in record time and headed straight for her car, but Danielle intercepted her.

"Annie! I need to talk to you!"

"What? I'm kind of in a hurry."

"Auggie called last night, after you went to bed."

"Oh man… what did he say?"

"Not much, he just wanted me to tell you he called, apparently your cellphone was turned off."

"Thanks Danielle, I'm heading to his place to apologize and beg for forgiveness right now."

"I don't think you'll have a hard time. See you and Auggie for dinner tonight."

"Gawd I hope so. See you later Danielle."

* * *

><p>As she walked up to the front door of Auggie's building Annie couldn't help feeling nervous. She'd acted like a stubborn, spoiled child and she could only pray that Auggie would hear her out. The fact that he'd called the previous night and had even spoken to Danielle calmed her nerves somewhat as she pushed the doorbell and waited for Auggie to buzz her in. A few minutes later she pushed the button again, just in the unlikely event that Auggie hadn't heard her the first time. Still no answer. She pulled out her cell and dialed Auggie's cellphone: the call went straight to voicemail. Damn. Annie checked the time. 10:25 am. Auggie was probably at the gym; in her rush to talk to him Annie had forgotten about his Saturday morning routine. As she walked back to the car she saw him coming around the corner. The sight of him brought a smile to her face. He was wearing a pair of jeans and his Army hoodie topped with a down vest and had a duffle bag slung over his left shoulder. His still damp hair confirmed that he'd definitely been to the gym. She headed down the street to meet him.<p>

"Hi Auggie!" she said as she approached him.

Auggie stopped and clasped his hands atop his cane with a questioning look on his face. "Annie?"

"Yeah, I'm so sorry for the way I acted last night," Annie sputtered out as she put a hand on his forearm.

"I'm sorry too Annie. How about we continue this conversation back at my place? It's kinda' cold outside and I'm craving some breakfast."

"Sure! Let me take this." Annie grabbed the duffle bag off his shoulder and looped her arm with Auggie's. He navigated the rest of the way to his front door with his cane. When they entered his apartment Annie made sure she put her shoes under the table by the door.

"Where do you want the duffle Aug?"

"It's just dirty gym clothes, would you mind putting them in the hamper? The bag goes on the bottom of the closet, to the right. I'll get started on some food."

"No problem!" Annie said with a smile and headed to the bedroom. "Hey Auggie, do you just keep the shampoo and body wash in the bag?" she called a few minutes later.

"Yep! Just leave'em."

Annie put the duffle where Auggie told her to and headed back to the living area where Auggie was whisking eggs. He turned his head toward the sound of her footsteps.

"Scrambled eggs on toast ok?"

"Perfect! I'm starving. Anything I can do?"

"You can toast the bread if you don't mind."

"Not at all."

Ten minutes later they were both sitting by the kitchen island, eating in silence. They were both hungry and polished off their meals pretty fast. Annie quickly rinsed their plates and flatware and put them in the dishwasher while Auggie wiped off the counter. After they finished they moved to sit on the sofa.

"Listen Auggie, as I said earlier I'm so sorry for the way I acted last night. I don't know what came over me. Storming out like that was just totally immature and unnecessary."

"I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have reacted like I did either. It's just that this is one of the few places I can move around freely without my cane, which means a lot to me. With all the traps you've been leaving out for me lately I actually started thinking I should use the cane to avoid tripping and it just pissed me off."

"Danielle talked some sense into me last night, one thing she said really hit home and woke me up. I promise I'll do my best to avoid leaving you any traps."

"Thanks Annie. I appreciate it." Auggie leaned towards her and with surprising accuracy he kissed her gently on the cheek. "Just out of curiosity; what did Danielle say?"

"Her exact words were; 'Auggie can't help being blind, it's not something he can change. You on the other hand _can_ work on your tidiness.' I think part of the problem is that I usually don't think about the fact that you can't see, it's just part of you and you make it easy to forget about it."

"Thanks, that's a big compliment," Auggie said warmly with a smile on his face.

"I have a suggestion to avoid incidents with the milk and juice by the way."

"What's that?"

"As much as I'll do my best to leave the milk and juice in their correct places, how about putting a rubber band around the juice? That way you know it's not milk, even if it's the wrong place."

"Sounds like a plan to me. Good idea Annie."

"I've got my moments." Annie laughed and punched Auggie gently on the arm.

"So, does this mean I can look forward to Danielle's cooking tonight?"

"You sure can! The girls have been nagging me to have you spend the night, so you'd better be prepared for a night at my place."

"I think I can manage that, it's about time. Just make sure the floors are cleared ok?" Auggie said with a wink.

* * *

><p><span>Sunday October 24<span>th 2010

Auggie woke up with Annie curled up against his side, resting her head on his shoulder. He inhaled the familiar scent of her shampoo and the faint scent of grapefruit. The even sound of Annie's breathing confirmed that she was still asleep. Waking up with Annie next to him was quickly turning into his favorite thing. The fact that it was Sunday and they didn't have anything on their schedules was an added bonus. He couldn't help thinking about how lucky he was despite all the struggles he'd faced the last year; he had a great job and now he was dating the most amazing woman he'd ever met. She was smart and funny, and from what he'd been told she was beautiful. It amazed him how she wasn't fazed by his blindness, she just took it in a stride and accepted it as part of him. Auggie gently kissed the crown of Annie's head and drifted back to a slumber, feeling happier and more at peace than he could ever remember feeling.


	12. Thanksgiving

**Thanks for the reviews and alerts on the previous chapters! :o) Here's a long overdue update to this story.**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Covert Affairs.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 12<strong>

Wednesday, November 24th 2010

As they walked towards the baggage claim area at O'Hare Annie couldn't help but feeling a bit nervous. Auggie had persuaded her to come with him to celebrate Thanksgiving in Glencoe with his family. Honestly it hadn't been that hard of a sell; Danielle, Michael and the girls were going to celebrate Thanksgiving with Michael's family and Annie definitely preferred spending the holiday with her boyfriend. Still, she knew Auggie came from a big family and it was a bit daunting to her.

"Annie, are you ok?" Auggie asked. He'd noticed that he arm he was holding on to was tense and he didn't think it was just the stress of getting them both through the crowds at the airport.

"Sorry, I'm actually a bit nervous about your big family. It was just Danielle, me and our parents growing up. Because we moved around so much we rarely saw our grandparents or the rest of the family. I know I'm being silly."

Auggie gave her elbow a squeeze and smiled at her.

"Don't worry, I guess the whole Anderson clan can be a bit overwhelming at first, but you'll get used to it."

"Thanks! Are your parents picking us up?"

"Yep! Dad said they'd be waiting in baggage claim."

* * *

><p>Half an hour later Auggie and Annie were settled in the back seat of his parent's car, they were headed for the Anderson's home in Glencoe. Annie felt a bit more at ease after meeting his parents, they were just as warm and friendly as Auggie and they seemed genuinely happy to meet her. She could also tell that they were thrilled to have their youngest son home for a few days.<p>

"So, you work for the same company as Auggie?" Lynne Anderson asked Annie, pulling her out of her thoughts.

"Yeah. I'm a translator. European languages, at the time I work mainly on Russian translations."

"Auggie mentioned that you like to travel?"

"I love to travel. It's also important to keep my language skills sharp. This time last year I was in Europe. Took a six-month leave from work to travel. I actually got back to work at about the same time as Auggie joined the company."

"If it hadn't been for Annie I think I would have ended up quitting," Auggie interjected.

Annie's eyebrows shot up in surprise by his statement. "Seriously? Why?"

"Let's just say that the first few weeks at work were hard. Not the job itself, but finding my way around. Everyone's so busy and I don't think that anyone thought about the fact that finding your way around a maze of corridors when you can't see is kind of a challenge. I didn't want to bother anyone, I was afraid of appearing helpless and needy. I felt so trapped in my office for the first couple of weeks. Then I got to know you and…well, things got better." Auggie squeezed her hand.

"Wow Auggie, I hadn't thought about that. Well, I guess it was fate that I ran into you when you were standing by the elevators, looking all lost, that day we had lunch and started to get to know each other."

* * *

><p>Late that evening Lynne and Martin Anderson were getting ready for bed. Annie and Auggie had turned in an hour earlier, they were both tired from the trip from DC and Auggie had a headache from the loud crowds at the airports.<p>

"I can't believe how much Auggie has changed since he left in January, he's like a new person," Lynne said as she pulled on her nightgown.

"I wouldn't say he's a new person, more that he's back to his old self. He did put up a pretty good act before he left, but now it seems real."

"I have to admit I'd still feel better if he moved back to this area, somewhere closer to us. I wouldn't have to worry so much about him."

"Honey, look at him. He's as fit as ever; he has a great job and a stunning girlfriend. What's there to worry about?"

"I just worry. He's my baby and I'll always worry, even if he lived next door I'd worry. I know I'm being silly."

"Yes dear, you are being silly. Even blind Auggie is perfectly capable of taking care of himself. I think he has proven that over the last year, don't you?"

"I guess. I think part of it is that I don't know much about his life in DC."

"Lynne, stop it right now. Auggie will not move back here, it would be a stupid thing to do, considering where his career is going in DC. He's in one of his dream jobs and he seems to be doing it well. And we both know how much he struggled to even get a job to begin with. He was lucky it was at a company where the management saw that he had qualifications and skills, despite his disability."

"I know. I guess I feel a bit better having met Annie. She seems like a nice girl and I'm amazed at how fluently her and Auggie work together. She just seamlessly gives him the assistance he needs without being intrusive. Knowing that he has someone that cares about him and is there for him is good."

"And they seem to love each other," Martin interjected.

"Yeah, you're right Martin, I'm being totally overprotective. I'm happy they're here this weekend."

* * *

><p><span>Friday, November 26<span>th 2010

Annie woke up early. She was going with Auggie's mom and sisters in-law to do some Black Friday bargain hunting. Auggie would spend the day with his father and brothers, doing some 'male bonding' as he put it. She still felt slightly overwhelmed by Auggie's big family. The house had invaded by his four older brothers, his three sisters in-law and their seven children the previous day. The day had been a blur of a big meal, watching football and the Macy's parade on TV and family bonding. Annie felt very welcome, but it was a bit of a struggle to remember the names of so many new people at once. As she climbed out of the bed she paused for a second to look at Auggie. She loved how peaceful and relaxed he looked, somehow his mussed hair and the shadow on his face made him even more handsome than usual. She knew better than to watch him for too long though, he seemed to have some sort of sixth sense that detected people staring, even when he was sleeping. She moved quietly around the room when her cell phone started warbling on the bedside table. She quickly answered it.

"Annie Walker."

"Miss Walker, this is Detective Grey from the Virginia State Police. Are you the sister of Danielle Brooks?"

"Yes…oh my God, what's going on?" Annie's voice was trembling.

"I'm sorry to inform you that your sister, her husband and their daughters were in a car wreck this morning. They've all been airlifted to Georgetown University Hospital."

"NO!" Annie screamed and felt her legs turning into jelly. She crumbled down on the floor.

Annie's phone ringing had halfway woken Auggie and he'd been half listening to the conversation. Her scream woke him up and he jerked up in bed.

"Annie? What's going on? Where are you?"

"Over here…" Auggie found her quickly, she was sitting on the floor next to the bed. He sat down next to her and put his arm around her. As he sat down he heard a voice coming from her phone, calling out to Annie, wondering if she was still there.

"What's going on? Where's the phone?" She tapped the phone against his hand and continued to sob. He put it to his ear and spoke.

"This is August Anderson, I'm Annie's boyfriend."

"Mr. Anderson, this is Detective Grey from the Virginia State Police."

"What on earth is going on?"

"Michael and Danielle Brooks and their two daughters were in a car accident this morning."

Auggie felt his heart dropping and he pulled Annie in even closer.

"What happened?"

"They were hit head on by a truck that somehow got into the wrong lane. They are all seriously injured and were airlifted to Georgetown University Hospital." The detective went on giving him a few more details.

"We'll be on the first possible flight to DC, at the moment we're visiting my family in Illinois. I need your name and contact information, but I'm blind and not very good at taking notes. Could you do me a favor and text that and whatever other information you have regarding the Brooks' family that we'll need to this number?"

"Of course sir. Let me know when you're back in DC. Again, I'm so sorry."

"Thank you. We'll be in touch as soon as we're back in DC. Just text the contact information." Auggie ended the call and put the phone down on the floor next to his thigh, and then he wrapped his arms around Annie who was sobbing hard. She wrapped her arms around him and held him like her life depended on it. Silent tears ran down Auggie's face as he stroked Annie's back and murmured comforting words into her ear.


	13. Being there

**Figured I couldn't leave you hangin' for too long with that cliffhanger and I was kind of inspired, so here's the next chapter! ;o)**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Covert Affairs! Still wish I owned Auggie though! :o)**

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><p><strong><span>Chapter 13<span>**

Friday November 26th 2010

The next hours were pretty much a blur for Annie. Auggie managed to get her back in the bed and his mom and occasionally one of his sisters in-law in the room with her. She was grateful for Auggie's big family, that there was always someone there with her, holding her, comforting her. She felt as though the ground had been pulled out from under her. Through their childhood years Danielle had been the one stable thing in Annie's life, she'd always been there for her, no matter where in the world their father's military career had taken them. The thought of life without Danielle was unbearable. Auggie, with the assistance of his brother Josh, managed to get them on a flight back to DC late in the afternoon. There were only First Class seats available and the cost made serious damage to his American Express card, but at this point he didn't care. All that mattered was getting back to DC as soon as possible, to get to Danielle, Michael and the girls. Annie had tried to get Auggie to stay until Sunday, that he shouldn't cut the time with his family short, but he wouldn't hear a word about it. He knew he wouldn't be able to enjoy the rest of the weekend and relax, he would just worry about the Brooks' and he wanted to be there for Annie. She shouldn't go through this alone.

* * *

><p>It was after 10 o'clock in the evening when Annie pulled into a parking space in front of Georgetown University Hospital. Their journey from Glencoe had thankfully been uneventful. Everything had gone smoothly and she was thankful that they'd travelled First Class and that there had been no crying babies or fussy toddlers on the plane. The crowds at both O'Hare and Reagan had been crazy and weaving through the masses of people with Auggie in tow had been a challenge, he'd even had is cane out, hoping it would make people a bit more considerate. Unfortunately Thanksgiving travelers didn't seem to notice his cane and it had taken more time than if she'd been alone. As she led Auggie through the hospital entrance her mind was racing. She was so worried about Danielle and her family that she caught herself being annoyed by being slowed down a bit by leading Auggie. A wave of guilt instantly passed through her and she quickly pushed the annoyance away. She loved Auggie, he was one of the kindest people she'd ever known. He'd just spent a significant amount of money to get them here as soon as possible and he'd cut the already limited time he spent with his family short to be there for her and her family and she was annoyed because his disability was slowing her down slightly. "Get a grip Annie!" she thought as she approached the information desk.<p>

"How may I help you?" the woman manning the desk asked.

"I'm here to see my sister, Danielle Brooks, and her family. They were in a car wreck this morning and airlifted here."

"I see, let me check…" The woman turned her attention to the computer in front of her. "Your sister's doctor is here, I'll call him and see if he has time to see you." She picked up the phone and dialed the doctor's number.

"This is Irene down at the front desk. I've got Danielle Brooks' sister and her boyfriend here. Do you have time to see them…..ok….yeah, I'll let 'em know…..Thanks." She hung up the phone and turned her attention to Annie and Auggie.

"Dr. Lewis will see you in his office in twenty minutes. It's on the 4th floor, just take the elevator at the end here and it's in the second corridor on your right, office number 4012."

"Thanks," Annie said and brushed the back of Auggie's hand. He latched on to her elbow and they walked towards the elevators.

############################

She found Dr. Lewis' office and checked the time, still 15 minutes 'til he'd see them. "There are some chairs down here, let's have a seat," Annie suggested and headed a few feet down the hall where three chairs were lined up against the wall. She placed Auggie's hand on the back of one chair and soon they were both seated, Auggie wrapped his arm around Annie's shoulders and she leaned against him. They sat in silence and a few minutes later a middle-aged man in green scrubs came down the hall.

"Are you Danielle Brooks' sister?" he asked Annie.

"Yes, Annie Walker." She got to her feet and extended her hand. Auggie followed suit.

"Auggie Anderson, Annie's boyfriend," he said, offering his hand. He was rewarded with a firm handshake.

"Thomas Lewis. Now, let's step into my office." He unlocked the door and opened it, allowing Annie and Auggie to enter first. They sat in the two chairs in front of the desk; the doctor closed the door and got seated in his desk chair.

" Your sister and her husband are both in the ICU. Your sister is stable and she will make a full recovery; her husband is also stable. Your nieces sustained more minor injuries and are up in the children's ward."

"Thank God, at least some of the news are good," Annie let out a sigh of relief; Auggie squeezed her hand and smiled. "What are my their injuries?"

"Your sister broke her left leg and arm, she has several bruised ribs and some internal injuries. Her husband broke both legs well. He's also got several broken ribs, which punctured one of his lungs. What we're most concerned about the serious head trauma he sustained and is in a coma at the moment. It doesn't look like he's got any permanent brain damage, but we won't know for sure until he wakes up."

"What about Chloe and Katia?"

"Chloe's got a broken arm and some cuts and bruises, Katia's just got some nasty cuts and a sprained ankle. From what I understand they can be discharged soon, they just want to keep them for observation for a couple of days."

* * *

><p>An hour later they were back in Annie's car, heading for Auggie's apartment. Michael's mother had insisted on staying the night with the girls and Annie would go back to the hospital first thing in the morning. For now they needed some sleep.<p>

"What are you going to do?" Auggie asked.

"About what?" Annie said, not understanding what Auggie was talking about.

"Well, it's pretty obvious that it's gonna be more than a few days before Danielle and Michael get discharged from the hospital. We're probably talking months from now. What are you going to do about the girls?"

"Uh… I haven't really thought about it," Annie admitted. "God, that's another thing we need to sort out."

"We'll figure something out, they'll be at the hospital for another couple of days, so we have some time."

###################

It was close to 1 am at night when the finally climbed into Auggie's bed, he put his arm around her and pulled her in close and she curled up next to him.

"Thanks Auggie," she said as she planted a soft kiss on his cheek.

"For what?"

"For today, getting plane tickets, cutting your visit with your family short to be there for me, for being here. Just for being you. I love you Auggie."

"I love you too Annie, and there's no need to thank me."

"Yes, I need to think you. You really went above and beyond for me today."

"I'd expect nothing less from you Annie. And do you really think I'd have a good time in Glencoe worrying about you and your sister and her family?"

"I guess not. Still, thanks Aug. Really."

"Shhh. Enough thanking me," he chuckled, his hand playing with Annies hair. "Annie, I have an idea. Why don't we move in to the guest room at your sister's house, that way the girls can stay in their home?"

"We? As in you and me?"

"Yeah, I can help you take care of the girls. They do love their Uncle Auggie you know," he said with a confident smirk. He was right; the girls adored him.

"Actually, it's not a bad idea. My parents are flying in from LA first thing in the morning; we'll talk it over with them and Michael's family. I don't think we'll have a problem selling the idea to them though."

"Didn't think about your parents coming. You don't think they'll have a problem with a blind guy they don't know watching their grandchildren?" Auggie was suddenly worried. He hadn't met Annie's parents yet and he was a bit nervous about meeting them. He'd never been a huge fan of 'meet the parents sessions', blind or sighted. Annie noticed that his expression changed and leaned over and kissed him on the lips, the kiss deepened and Auggie's hands started moving up her back under her t-shirt. Annie pulled away and rested her head on Auggie's shoulder.

"Nah, I know you and the girls adore you. That should do. Now, lets get some sleep Aug. It's been a long day and we've got a long day ahead of us."

"Good night Annie."

"Night Auggie."


	14. Back to normal

**I'm so sorry for not updating this story, I just hit a major writer's block and I've been struggling with this chapter forever. I think I've started about six or seven versions of it and nothing worked out the way I wanted to. I finally managed to write something I'm comfortable with posting. It's not my best work, but it's not the worst either. The next chapter is in the works and should be up in a few days, but no promises. You never know when the muse decides to go into hibernation or my work schedule blows up. Fingers crossed that neither of those happens during the next couple of days. :o)**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything - I just love to play with A&A! :o)**

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><p><strong>Chapter 14: Back to normal<strong>

Friday, February 4th 2011

With a relieved sigh Auggie pulled his suitcase into his bedroom and placed it on his bed. After spending two months at the Brooks' house helping Annie take care of her nieces it felt good to be back at his own place. Danielle had been discharged from the hospital and had finished with a two-week stay at a rehab facility. She was back home and had insisted that with a bit of help from Annie she could manage the girls. Auggie had offered to stay longer, but (to his relief) both Annie and Danielle had said they'd manage and he was free to move back home. As much as he loved Annie and would pretty much do anything for her, the last couple of months had been a challenge for him. The house wasn't set up in a very 'blind guy' friendly way and for the first couple of weeks he'd felt like he gave Annie more trouble than help. As time progressed he'd familiarized himself with the house and whereabouts of things, but he'd missed his organized, open plan loft more than once. He'd also learned that Chloe and Katia on an everyday basis was a handful. His previous interactions with them had been a few hours here and there, he'd just been 'fun Uncle Auggie'. Having to take on a more parental role had proved to be more challenging then he'd imagined. He definitely preferred the role of 'fun Uncle' to 'strict Uncle'. He also missed Annie at work. Joan had been very understanding and had let her work from home; she'd only had to come in to the office for meetings a couple of times a week. Auggie missed her bringing him coffee or just dropping in to his office for a little chat, he'd missed having lunch with her and riding with her back and forth from the office. She'd be back at the office in a couple of weeks; Auggie couldn't wait for things to return to normal.

"Ring…Craig-Henderson…Ring…Craig-Henderson…Ring…" His landline phone ringing pulled Auggie from his musings. Craig was one of his old buddies and he hadn't seen him since they'd had a brief, awkward encounter at a bar right after Auggie returned to DC over a year earlier. Auggie answered the phone, wondering why Craig was calling him now.

_"Hello."_

_"Aug, it's Craig. How's it hangin'?"_

_"Fine. How 'bout you? Everything ok?"_ Auggie's tone was a bit clipped and hesitant, the hurt he felt about the way his buddies had acted was evident.

_"All's good here. Listen Auggie, I'm sorry I've been a stranger for the last year and the way I acted right after you got back here. I totally understand if you just wanna hang up on me."_

_"Have to admit hanging up is tempting. I was, and still am, disappointed about how you guys acted towards me after I was injured. Being blind isn't contagious, you can have dinner or a few beers with me without risking ownership of a white cane you know."_

_"I was an idiot, and so was the rest of the guys. We're all sorry for that Auggie, we really are. We were just so insecure about how to act around you and everything just got awkward and stupid…"_ Craig's voice trailed off and there was a long silence. Craig pulled himself together and broke it a few minutes later. _"Anyway, do you have any plans tomorrow night?"_

_"Nothing firm. Thought about taking my girlfriend out for dinner, but we haven't really discussed it yet. Why?"_

_"The guys are getting together at O'Neal's, just dinner and a few beers, the regular first Saturday of the moth routine you know. Would be nice if you joined us. What's this about a girlfriend? Someone I know?"_

Auggie didn't answer immediately, he did miss his old friends, but he'd been so busy for the past few moths that he hadn't really thought about it. Their complete absence from his life the past year stung, but he realized that this was his chance to get that part of his old life back and Craig sounded like he meant what he was saying. He still hesitated and decided to buy himself some time to think about it.

"_I have to have a word with Annie and get back to you, we usually do something together on Saturday night. And no, you don't know her. We work for the same company and she was nice enough to take this disoriented blind techie to lunch right after I started there and didn't know my way around the offices,"_ Auggie said with a small laugh. Craig hesitated a bit, but he let a small chuckle escape him.

_"You've always managed to hook up with the ladies, some way or another. Why don't you call her and then get back to me. Do you still have my cell number?"_

_"If it hasn't changed lately it's in my contacts."_

_"It's the same. Hope you can make it Auggie. I'll talk to you later then."_

_"Yep! Later Craig,"_ Auggie said and ended the call. He put the phone back in the cradle and sat on the edge of his bed, pulling a hand through his hair with a sigh. A wave of anger washed over him, the way Craig and the rest of the guys had treated him a year earlier still stung and as tempting as it was to bury the hatchet he wasn't sure about what to do. He pulled his Bluetooth headset and iPhone out of his jeans pocket and dialed Annie's number.

_"Hey Aug, miss me already?"_ Annie cheerily greeted him. It had only been an hour since she dropped Auggie off at his place.

_"I always miss you when we're not together Annie,"_ Auggie said with a smile evident in his voice. _"I need to talk to you about something."_

_"What's going on? Anything wrong?"_ Annie asked, sounding worried.

_"Remember I told you about my old buddies avoiding me like I had the plague or something when I returned to DC after being blinded?"_

_"Yeah, I remember that. Why?"_

_"Craig, the guy I was closest to, called me right after I got home and apologized for the way he'd behaved. He wants me to come to the first Saturday of the month get together with the guys at O'Neal's tomorrow night. I'm not sure what to do."_

_"Go of course. You told me how much you missed them; this is your chance to rebuild that part of your life. You should grab it."_

_"You think I should just roll over and forgive them for just ignoring me for the past year?"_ Auggie asked, sounding unconvinced.

_"I understand that you're angry with them for the way they acted and that it probably hurt, but they're reaching out Auggie. If you want them back in your life you've got to swallow your pride and accept their apology."_

_"That's easier said than done Annie."_

_"I understand that, but don't write it off completely. When do you have to get back to Craig?"_

_"As soon as possible. I told him I had to check with you before committing to going with him, since we usually do something on Saturday's."_

_"Don't decline because of me. I think I should stay here with Danielle tomorrow, watch a chick flick and hang with her. I think she needs that. Just sleep on it Auggie. Let him know in the morning, if he gives you a hard time just say you couldn't get a hold of me."_

_"Probably, I didn't think about that. I'll think about it. Part of me wants to go, but part of me is holding back."_

_"Good. I better go; I think Danielle needs some help getting the girls ready for bed. Love you!"_

_"Love you to. Talk to you tomorrow."_

_"Bye Aug,"_ Annie said and ended the call.

Auggie pulled the Bluetooth from his ear and placed that and the iPhone on his nightstand and went on with unpacking his suitcase. After putting the clean stuff back in their places and the dirty stuff in the laundry service bag he stowed the suitcase in the back of his closet. He pulled a pair of sleep pants and a t-shirt from his dresser and quickly changed before heading to the fridge and retrieving a beer. He made himself comfortable on the sofa and channel surfed until he found what seemed to be a re-run of a 'Bones' episode. He quickly recognized the dialogue and decided to watch it. Since he'd seen it before he had a pretty good idea about what was going on and the lack of an assistive viewing track wasn't a problem. He pushed the dilemma about Craig and his buddies to the back of his mind and decided to follow Annie's advice and sleep on it. He had a hefty swig of his beer and turned his attention to the TV. As much as he appreciated some solitude and quiet he realized he missed having Annie curled up to him, like she'd done pretty much every night after they'd gotten the girls to bed for the past couple of months.


	15. Burying the hatchet

******I just love being on a roll with a story - and for now the muse is very willing to play with this. I'm playing along! :o) Enjoy - and as always; reviews and alerts are love! :o)**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything - just love to play with the characters!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 15: Burying the hatchet<strong>

Saturday, February 5th 2011

As Auggie woke up Saturday morning it took him few seconds to remember that he was at home and not in the guest room at the Brooks' house. As much as he appreciated the quiet of his apartment he missed having Annie curled up next to him in the bed, the sound of her calm, even breathing and occasional contented little sleeping sounds and the faint smell of grapefruit tickling his nose. With a slight sigh he got out of bed and stretched before padding to the kitchen to start a pot of coffee. While the coffee brewed he took a quick shower, brushed his teeth and got dressed in his favorite pair of soft worn jeans, t-shirt and a soft cashmere sweater. As he got dressed Craig's call the previous night came to his mind. He needed to make a decision and let Craig know if he was coming or not. As he poured himself a mug of coffee his landline phone started ringing, the caller-ID announced Annie's name. He set the coffee down on the counter and reached for the phone sitting next to the fridge.

"_Mornin' Princess,"_ he greeted her cheerily.

"_Good morning to you too. You sound awfully happy this morning, has it been that bad spending time here?"_

"_Of course not. You know that. I actually missed having you next to me in bed when I woke up this morning."_

"_Just teasing Auggie. Listen, I talked to Danielle and we're going to take the girls to visit Michael today if you don't mind."_

"_Of course not. I'm sure he'll appreciate seeing the girls and they've been talking an awful lot about missing their dad."_

Michael had been transferred to rehab a week earlier and had about a month of rehab ahead of him. To everyone's relief he would make a full recovery.

"_About tonight, a Dani asked if I'd spend the night with her. Is that ok with you? Have you decided what to do about your buddies?"_

"_Of course it's ok with me, I told you that last night. I'm kind of undecided, but I think I'll go. If it's a disaster I'll just get a cab and go home."_

"_Go. Give it a shot, ok?"_

"_Mhm…."_ Auggie mumbled.

"_Aug, seriously. I understand you're feeling hurt, but you're a pretty smart guy, I'm sure you can manage to understand where they're coming from as well."_

"_Yeah, I guess…"_ Auggie said with a sigh. Annie was right, as always. When he'd returned to DC after his rehab a year earlier his new situation was still very raw and he was desperate for everyone to just treat him 'normally'. What he hadn't thought about at the time was that people were just as insecure around him as he was around them and he hadn't really done anything to make it easier for himself or those around him. He chatted with Annie for a few more minutes and ended the call.

Ten minutes later he'd retrieved his iPhone and Bluetooth headset from his nightstand. Feeling slightly nervous found Craig's number on his contact list and pushed the call button. He answered on the second ring, sounding slightly hesitant.

"_Hi Auggie! What's going on?"_

"_Mornin' Craig. Just wanted to let you know I'll join you tonight. I need some assistance though, are you game?"_

"_Great Auggie! What do you need?"_

"_Are you planning on meeting at 7:30, like always?"_

"_Yep, we're creatures of habit,"_ Craig said with a small laugh.

"_Well, could you meet me outside at 7:20? It's easier to navigate a crowded bar or restaurant with a guide. I also need you to cue me when my meal arrives."_

"_Sure Auggie, I'll do my best. What's this cuing thing?"_

"_Just let me know what's where on my plate. I can figure it out on my own, but it's a lot less awkward for everyone if I have a general idea."_

"_Care to explain how to describe it to you?"_

"_Think about the plate as the face of a clock. Straight ahead is 6 and 12 o'clock. 12 o'clock is obviously farther away, 1-5 is to my right and 7-11 is to my left. It's not that hard. I'll explain sighted guide when we meet, it's easier in person. You ok with this?"_

"_Doesn't sound too hard, I think I'll manage. I wish you'd taken the time to explain all this a year ago. It would've made things less awkward," _Craig said in a slightly annoyed tone.

"_I know and I'm sorry for that. At the time I wasn't thinking clearly, all that mattered to me was to have everyone treat me 'normally', I was still struggling to accept what had happened to me and I didn't realize that not acknowledging the big elephant in the room was a mistake."_

"_Well, I'm glad you're coming tonight. I can pick you up if you want to?"_

"_Did you plan on driving? Doesn't sound like your normal routine."_

"_Not really, but if it's easier for you I don't mind."_

"_I'll call the car service I use and book a car. I'll meet you outside O'Neal's at 7:20 tonight."_

"_I'll be there. See you later Auggie."_

"_Great. Later." _ Auggie ended the call.

* * *

><p>At 6:30 that night he finished shaving and stepped out of the bathroom, clad in only a white towel around his waist. He quickly scanned his closet and got dressed in a pair of black jeans, a tailored navy shirt and a black grandpa sweater. He went back to the bathroom to brush his teeth and comb his hair. With that finished he checked the time: 6:55. The car service should arrive at 7, so he put on his coat and scarf, made sure he had his gloves, wallet and iPhone before grabbing his cane and keys off their place on the kitchen island and heading downstairs to wait for the car. He barely managed to exit the front door of his apartment building before he heard a familiar voice calling his name, telling him the car was at his 12 o'clock, about nine feet away. It was Stewart, one of his regular drivers, and Auggie quickly made his way across the sidewalk and with easy movements he settled into the passenger seat.<p>

When he dropped Auggie off outside O'Neal's 15 minutes later he was almost immediately greeted by Craig.

"_Auggie! Great to see you,"_ Craig exclaimed before pulling Auggie into a bear hug. As much as Auggie hated to admit it he was actually happy to see Craig again.

"_Good to see you too Craig,"_ he answered, patting his friend on the back before breaking the hug.

"_Kevin and Jake are already here, so I guess we should head inside and join them. Um…how do I go about guiding you?"_

Auggie quickly explained basic sighted guide technique to Craig and a soon they were heading towards their table. Auggie kept his cane out, both to let people know that he was blind and couldn't pay attention to his surroundings and because it was the first time Craig was a sighted guide and the cane acted as sort of a bumper. As they made their way through the restaurant Auggie whispered to Craig; _"Make sure I'm seated next to you, it'll make giving me cues discreetly easier, ok? Just place my hand on the back of the chair you want me in."_

"_Ok, thanks for explaining how to assist you Aug. I'll do my best."_

"_Don't worry, I'm sure you'll do just fine. Thanks for doing this."_

"_It's fine Auggie. I just wish we could've done this a year ago."_

A few hours later they'd finished their meals and Auggie had lost count of the number of beers he'd consumed. The guys had all apologized for their behavior and Auggie had, although somewhat reluctantly, admitted that he was also to blame for the way things had turned out. With the air cleared conversation had picked up and the eight men were chatting away about everything from football to careers.

"_Where are you working now Auggie? You quit at SafeSoftware before you went to Iraq, didn't you?"_ Kevin asked.

"_I'm the Head of IT at Trusted Translations. I started out as tech support, but was promoted after a few months."_

"_Congrats Auggie, sounds like you've gotten one of your dream jobs. I remember you were always talking about wanting a position like that."_

"_Yep. If you'd told me I'd be where I am now a year ago I would've laughed at you. I've got a great job and a fantastic girlfriend. Life's better than I dared to hope for."_

"_I'm glad to hear that Auggie," _Jason said, patting Auggie on the arm. Auggie explained a bit about his job and bragged a bit about his amazing girlfriend. It felt good to be hangin' with his old friends and as far as Auggie could tell the feeling was mutual. It was a good feeling, but as much as he enjoyed being out with his buddies' part of him missed Annie. He looked forward to introducing her to them.


	16. Living arrangements

**Another chapter! The muse is on a roll... :)**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 16: Living arrangements<strong>

Sunday, February 6th 2011

Auggie hadn't gotten home until closer to 3 o'clock at night and he'd consumed a considerable amount of alcohol. When he woke up close to noon on Sunday his mouth felt like cotton, he was slightly nauseous and his head was pounding. It had been a while since he'd been had a hangover that bad and as much as he'd enjoyed hanging with his friends he realized he should've been firmer at saying no when Craig and Jason started bringing the trays of shots. As tempting as it was to stay buried beneath the covers nature was calling and he slowly got out of bed and padded to the bathroom. After relieving himself, washing his hands and a long session with his toothbrush and mouthwash he located the bottle of prescription painkillers and withdrew two capsules. He then made his way to the kitchen where he poured himself a glass of water and downed the pills. He then started a pot of strong coffee. A knock on his door surprised him, he wasn't expecting any company, at least not that he could remember. For a second he considered ignoring whoever was on his doorstep, but then a familiar voice hit his ears.

"_Auggie! Are you there?"_ Annie called through the door. Auggie made his way to the door, unlocked it and slid it open.

"_God Auggie, you look like shit! I take it you had fun with your buddies last night?"_

"_Thanks sweetheart,"_ Auggie replied with a touch of sarcasm lacing his voice, gesturing for her to enter. After closing and locking the door behind her he felt a touch on his arm and Annie pulled him in for a kiss.

"_You didn't answer my question; did you have a good time last night?"_ She asked as they broke the embrace and headed towards the kitchen where the coffeemaker beeped, announcing that the coffee was done brewing.

"_I actually had a great time. I just wish I hadn't had all the shots we finished the night with. It's been a while since I had a hangover this bad."_

"_Poor Auggie,"_ Annie said teasingly while kissing his cheek. _"Have you taken something for it?"_

"_Yeah, I just downed a couple of painkillers right before you got here, hopefully they'll kick in soon. Some strong coffee usually helps too,"_ he said, while pulling down two mugs from the shelf above the coffeemaker. He placed both of them on a tray on the counter, carefully filled them both with coffee and brought the tray with him to the island where he offered one of them to Annie. She accepted, but quickly found the creamer in Auggie's fridge and topped off her mug with it. The coffee was a bit too strong for her liking. After his second mug of coffee Auggie was feeling slightly better, the painkillers had started to kick in and the nausea had subsided.

"_I think I'll shower and get dressed real quick. Maybe I'll feel more human after a shower."_

"_I'll make us some lunch while you do that. Do you have eggs and bacon? A bit of grease always seems to help cure my hangovers."_

"_Yep, got a grocery delivery yesterday. It's in the fridge, at the regular locations. Thanks Annie."_

Twenty minutes later they were seated by the kitchen island with plates of fried eggs, bacon and toast in front of them. By the time he'd polished off his meal Auggie looked a bit better.

"_Feeling better?"_ Annie asked as she rinsed the plates and placed them in the dishwasher. She also washed the frying pan and generally cleaned up after herself in the kitchen.

"_Yeah, I'm slowly returning to feeling somewhat human again. Thanks babe, you're the best."_

"_No need to thank me! That's what girlfriends are for,"_ Annie said with a smile as she sat down next to Auggie and put her arm around his shoulders. They sat in comfortable silence for a while. Auggie thought about how much Anne actually had come to mean to him, he'd never felt such a connection with anyone else. They'd instantly hit it off and she was one of very few people he actually opened up to about his insecurities and felt comfortable about being totally candid with. The way she'd taken his disability in a stride amazed him; she'd just accepted is as part of him and never made a big deal about it. After he lost his sight he'd been very determined to make people see the person behind the white cane; it had proven to be a tougher challenge than he'd anticipated and when his buddies had reacted the way they did he'd thought that all hope was lost. Meeting Annie had changed that. Her unconditional acceptance of him and his blindness, the way she just took it in a stride had helped him accept himself. Living with her over the past few months had been amazing, even if the circumstances had been less than great and they'd both struggled with being thrown into temporary parenthood at times.

"_Annie, I wanna talk to you about something,"_ Auggie started, a bit tentatively. Annie's curiosity was instantly piqued by Auggie's tone and the fact that he seemed slightly nervous. _"I'm all ears,"_ she said and grasped his right hand.

"_Annie, I love you and you're one of the most important people in my life. Living with you these past few months has been great, even though challenging at times. How do you feel about moving in with me?"_

"_Really? You think you can put up with having me around all the time?"_

"_You basically lived here for a while before Thanksgiving and even if the past few months have been challenging, they've also been great. One of my buddies is in the real estate business and he mentioned having a great place for sale just a few blocks from here last night. I could give him a call and we could check it out. This area is popular, so it shouldn't be too difficult to sell this place for a decent price."_

"_You own this place?"_ Annie asked sounding surprised.

"_Yeah. I'm sure you figured out when we went to see my folks at Thanksgiving that they're are pretty well off?"_

"_Uhuh…"_

"_Well, my brothers and I all have trust funds, they were meant for college, but I got full scholarships all the way through Northwestern and didn't need the money for that. I used part of it on a down payment on this place when I moved to DC." _Annie noticed that Auggie seemed slightly embarrassed to admit the fact that he had a trust fund. She on the other hand was a bit embarrassed by her lack of savings.

"_I have to say I'm tempted, but I don't really have much to contribute with financially. I've spent so much money on my travels that I haven't really managed to save much for anything else,"_ she admitted, feeling like an idiot. _"It's one of the reasons I've lived in the guest house; it's cheap and gives me a chance to save money to travel. Being a translator isn't that well paid, and the travels are essential for keeping my language skills sharp. Not good for my finances."_

"_Don't worry about it Annie. As long as you take care of your part of the utilities it's fine."_

"_I don't want that Auggie. It doesn't feel right."_

"_Stop it Annie. Before you decide anything; at least come with me to check the place out. Don't write it off, please."_

Annie sighed. She didn't feel right about Auggie taking care of most of the costs, but she really wanted to live with him. She decided to come with him to see the place.

"_Ok, set up the viewing. I'll come with you."_

"_Great! I'll call Ethan first thing tomorrow. Thanks Annie."_

Annie couldn't help smiling; the little boy grin Auggie had plastered across his face made him even more handsome than usual.


	17. The loft

**The response to the past few updates have been sort of luke warm, the reviews and alerts are few and far between. I hope this chapter does the trick and chases the lurkers out of hiding; the muse needs feeding or she might go back into hibernation. To those few that have reviewed or added this to your alerts or favorite lists; THANK YOU! :o)**

**The idea for the insurance policy was planted by Patricia Louise's story 'A New Life' - this is my spin on it. **

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything, I just like playing with Annie and Auggie.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 17: The loft<strong>

Wednesday, February 9th 2011

At 5:25 in the afternoon Annie pulled into the pickup lane in front of the building where the Trusted Translations offices were located. Auggie had told her to pick him up at 5:30, they were meeting his friend Ethan at 6:30 pm to look at the condo he had for sale. Auggie had been very secretive about it; he hadn't even given her the address. She wondered what the place was like. The only thing she was fairly certain about was that it was pretty open planned. For the month's they'd lived together at the Brooks' house Auggie had been complaining about the layout of her sister's house and had talked about how much he missed his open planned loft. She checked the time; it was 5:28 pm. Time to start looking for Auggie; he was always on time. At 5:29 pm he exited the building. She couldn't help but smiling at the sight of her very handsome boyfriend confidently walking across the sidewalk towards her car, cane sweeping in front of him. Annie got out of the car and approached him.

"_Hi there handsome,"_ she said, lightly touching the back of his left hand. He stopped in his tracks.

"_Miss Walker, didn't expect to meet you here,"_ he said in a teasing tone and then he pulled her into an embrace. After a passionate kiss he let go of her and grasped her right elbow and they started walking towards the car.

"_So, plan on giving me the address anytime soon? Would be nice to know where I'm going."_

"_Not giving you the address. Just drive to my place and we'll walk from there."_

"_Sheesh Auggie, why so secretive? It's driving me nuts."_

"_Calm down Walker. You'll get your answers within the hour. Now; just drive!"_

Shaking her head Annie put the car in gear and pulled into traffic, she realized she wouldn't get anything out of Auggie anyway.

* * *

><p>Forty minutes later they were standing outside a modern building a few blocks from Auggie's place. Auggie had refused to give her the address; he'd just punched in the address to the GPS app on his iPhone, popped his ear buds into his ears and offered Annie his arm. As soon as she looped her right arm with his left he'd set off down the street, using the GPS app and his cane to navigate. Annie had decided to play along, seeing the expectant and smug look on Auggie's face made her realize that he needed to do this his way.<p>

"_Wow Auggie! Are you sure you've got the right address?"_

"_Yep. Any time now we should be approached by a tall, dark haired man in a camel hair coat."_

As on cue a tall, dark man in a camel hair coat rounded the corner. He was carrying a zippered leather document folder under his left arm and smiled broadly when he caught the sight of Auggie and Annie standing on the sidewalk. Annie quickly whispered to Auggie that Ethan was approaching.

"_Auggie, great to see you again,"_ he said as he approached and pulled Auggie in for a half hug and patted him on the back. As they broke the hug he turned his attention to Annie._ "And this is the lovely Annie I presume?"_

"_Yes, this is my girlfriend, Annie Walker. Annie, this is Ethan Wilkins, an old friend of mine."_

"_Nice to meet you Annie."_

"_Likewise, it's nice to meet an old friend of Auggie's."_

"_Are you guys ready? Let's head upstairs."_ Ethan said as he started walking towards the entrance. Annie quickly brushed the back of Auggie's left hand and he latched on to her elbow. They followed Ethan into the foyer of the condominium and to the bank of elevators at the side of the foyer. A couple of minutes later they stepped out of the elevator on the 5th floor of the building and followed Ethan to a door at the end of the hallway. He opened the door and Annie gasped as they entered the condo. Auggie smiled, and squeezed her elbow. Ethan told them to have a look around while he made a couple of phone calls.

"_Is it nice?"_ he asked as Annie led him through the foyer and into the living area.

"_Nice? It's amazing Auggie,"_ Annie said, looking around.

"_Care to describe it to me?"_

"_Oh, sorry Aug. Of course – how much have Ethan told you about it beforehand?"_

"_Just that it's a modern loft, goes over two floors and the lower level is completely open planned, except for the powder room, foyer and a storage closet off the foyer._

"_It's kind of industrial, like your place really. You enter through a small foyer. There are two doors on the left wall; I assume those go to the storage closet and powder room. On the right there's sliding mirrored doors that I assume is concealing a hall closet. The living area is square; about 25 by 25 feet, one wall is floor to ceiling windows with doors leading out to a narrow balcony that runs the entire length of the condo. The kitchen is on the opposite wall, all the way in the back. It's laid out pretty much like your kitchen. When you stand in front of it there's a fridge to the right, then a few feet of counter space, then the sink, with the dishwasher underneath, another few feet of counter space and two floor to ceiling cabinets to the left. There's an oven, a microwave, a coffee machine and what I presume is a steam oven. The island has a cooktop and plenty of cabinet space with a seating area on the side toward the living area. The stairs leading to the upper level is on the far wall. Wanna walk around and get a feel for the place?"_ Auggie nodded and for a few minutes he walked around the living area, the smile on his face growing wider. Annie leaned on the kitchen island, watching him. He walked back to where she was standing and asked if she was ready to head upstairs. They ascended the stairs and Annie went on with describing the upper level of the condo to Auggie. It consisted of a decent sized bedroom, a full bath, a storage closet and a master bedroom with a walk in closet and private bathroom with a Jacuzzi. When Annie mentioned the Jacuzzi to him he waggled his eyebrows in her direction with a seductive smile on his face. She couldn't stop herself from giggling and punching Auggie in the arm.

"_You're incorrigible,"_ she said, shaking her head.

"_That's a well known fact Miss Walker. Now, on a more serious note; what do you think? Can you imagine living here with me?"_

"_Yes, I can totally imagine living here with you, I'd love to, but this place must cost a fortune Auggie."_

"_It does, but if you like it and want to move here with me I'm buying it. I know I'll be comfortable here; it's open planned with spacious rooms. What it looks like and floor to ceiling windows that provide sunlight doesn't mean anything to me, but I know you can appreciate it. Oh, I also like the balcony – it faces west so it should be sunny out there in the afternoon and evening. And you can enjoy the sunset."_

Annie looked up at Auggie's face; the hope and expectation in his eyes won her over. If he could afford it she would go along with it.

"_I like it a lot and I'd love to live here with you. But, just for the record, I'd be happy to live in the most cruddy apartment in the US as long as it is with you."_

Auggie pulled Annie in for a hug and then a long passionate kiss. Then they headed back downstairs to settle the details with Ethan and get the ball rolling on the purchase of the condo. Ethan would also help Auggie sell his place.

* * *

><p>When they returned to Auggie's apartment little over an hour later Annie couldn't help questioning Auggie a bit more about how he could afford a million dollar condo. He'd mentioned having a trust fund and when they'd gone to see his family at Thanksgiving it had been obvious that his family was well off, but she still had a feeling there was more to the story.<p>

"_I told you about my trust fund, but that's not all; before my last deployment in Iraq my oldest brother, the insurance broker, persuaded me to take out a policy. At the time I felt it was a waste of money, I thought I'd come home in one piece, well… I did, but… you know what I mean. Anyway, coming home blind was a big time payout and the money will cover the purchase of the condo with money to spare. I'm putting the rest of it into the trust fund and my 401(k). When I got promoted I got a substantial raise and I make more than a decent living from my job and I'm not a high maintenance person."_

"_I'm feeling all poor and irresponsible,"_ Annie admitted. _"It's a bit embarrassing that at the age of 31 I have spent every dime I have on travels and I live in my sister's guest house."_

"_Annie, it's nothing to be embarrassed about. It's not like you've travelled just for fun. I'm lucky enough to come from a privileged background, but fortunately my parents never spoiled us kids. We got an allowance and we got what we needed, but if we wanted something extra we had to earn the money for it. Dad was adamant about us kids learning a strong work ethic and even if I hated it at times growing up I'm thankful for it now. Let me tell you something; when I first got the payout I didn't want anything to do money. I'd rather have my sight back than a bucket load of money. Unfortunately there isn't any way to restore my sight, a billion dollars wouldn't make a difference and I've accepted that. After a while I started to see that the money gives me the opportunity to buy the latest, top-of-the-line adaptive technology, pay for grocery deliveries, my car service, cleaner and the laundry service and other things that make my life easier and make it possible for me to live as independently as possible for a blind guy. Now, please keep this between the two of us. I realize we'll have to tell your family some version of it when you move, but in general I don't want it spread around."_

"_Of course not Aug, I totally understand that. Thanks for sharing it with me and sorry for interrogating you like that."_

"_No worries, I realized that showing you that place would lead to questions and I don't mind answering them. Now, I'm starving, let's go to the café down the block for a bite to eat."_

* * *

><p><span>Monday, March 14<span>th 2011

Annie looked around the spacious living area of the condo. Cardboard boxes lined much of the wall and the movers were carrying furniture and boxes upstairs. Over the month since Auggie had bought the place and 'til he'd gotten the key the previous Friday they'd discussed everything from furnishing the place to how to split the costs. Auggie's clean, modern furniture looked good in the living area, but Annie had mentioned getting some accent pieces to soften the bachelor pad look a bit. Auggie had agreed, as long as she promised not to get anything girly, floral or frilly. She'd teased him about the fact that she could decorate the place with nothing but girly, frilly stuff without him having a clue, but both Auggie and Annie knew that she would not do that. They'd agreed on using Auggie's bedroom furniture in the master bedroom. His bed was a king and the mattress was extremely comfortable, while Annie's was a queen and would go well in the spare bedroom. Her desk and armchair also went in there. As she was thinking about everything that needed to get done she felt slightly overwhelmed. Moving was hard work and she was glad that they'd hired the movers to move the furniture and the fact that both she and Auggie had the week off to get settled. A pair of strong arms embracing her from behind and a kiss on top of her head startled her for a second. She hadn't caught Auggie coming.

"_Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."_

"_I was just lost in my thoughts and between that and the all the noise I was a bit distracted. It's fine."_ Annie turned to face Auggie and kissed him on the lips.

"_I talked to the movers, they're getting the last haul from the truck now, then they're done. I don't know about you, but I'm getting hungry."_

"_Me too. I only had time for yoghurt this morning and it's way past our normal lunchtime. How about going to the little bistro right around the corner when the movers are done?"_

"_Sounds good to me. Even if this place isn't that far from my old place I don't really know this neighborhood, we need to check out the local eateries."_

"_It's a deal then."_

* * *

><p>Half an hour later Auggie closed and locked the door to the condo and unfolded his cane.<p>

"_I might as well start familiarizing myself with the building and the area right away. Why don't you walk a few steps ahead of me, I'll follow the sound of your heels, and then let me know when we're by the elevators."_

"_Ok, let's go."_

A few minutes later they exited the building and Auggie followed Annie to the bistro. He latched on to her elbow before entering. The hostess showed them to a nice table by the window and handed Auggie a Braille menu without him asking for it, which made him smile broadly.

"_If the food's as great as the service I think I've got a new favorite restaurant,"_ he stated.

"_Well, we're about to find out. What sounds good to you?"_

After scanning the selections Auggie ordered a steak sandwich and Annie went for the Caesar salad. They both ordered iced tea to drink. Auggie was very pleased with the service. The waitress was very friendly and addressed him, not Annie, when it was his turn to order. He'd experienced several times at unfamiliar restaurants that the waiters just ignored him and asked Annie or whoever he was with what he wanted to order, which was always upsetting and embarrassing. In the beginning it had made him want to scream that he was just blind, not deaf or stupid and that he was fully capable of ordering his own food, but as time had passed he'd come to realize and accept that it came with the territory and there wasn't much he could do about it. He tried his best to ignore it; he figured that being annoyed by ignorant people was a waste of time and energy. As they finished their lunch Auggie leaned across the table and talked in a low voice; _"I think I have a new favorite place. Great service, and the food is really good too."_

"_Agreed. Doesn't hurt that it's right around the corner from our place either. Shall we head back and start tackling the mountain of boxes?"_

"_I guess there's no escaping it, we might as well get started."_

* * *

><p>Late that evening they were curled up on the sofa, Annie was leaning against Auggie, resting her head on his chest. They'd tackled the boxes downstairs and would get on with the stuff upstairs and get Auggie's computer set up the next day.<p>

"_Cheers Annie,"_ Auggie said, holding his beer out in her direction.

"_Cheers! Thanks for letting me stay with you in this amazing place. I can't wait to see Danielle's face when she comes over tomorrow. You'll probably hear her jaw dropping to the floor."_

"_Thanks for wanting to live with me. I know it can be a pain in the ass to live with a blind guy and there are plenty of people out there that wouldn't put up with it."_

"_Auggie, I love you more than I've ever loved a man in my entire life. You've got to realize that I don't think about you as 'the blind guy'. I think of you as Auggie, the man that I love. The blind part comes up somewhere down the line."_

Auggie was silent for a while, with a pensive look on his face, before a warm smile graced his features and he pulled Annie closer and kissed the crown of her head.

"_What did I do to deserve you, Annie Walker?"_ he murmured into her hair.


	18. Getting settled

**Thanks for the reviews on the previous chapter - they were enough to keep the muse from going into hibernation. :o)**

**This chapter is longish, but I'm happy with it and I hope you like it too.**

**DISCLAIMER: The usual: I don't anything, I just like to play with Annie and Auggie.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 18: Getting settled<strong>

Tuesday, March 15th 2011

"_Wow Annie, this place is amazing!"_ Danielle almost shouted as Annie shut the door behind her. Annie smiled; Danielle's reaction was pretty much as she'd expected. She hadn't told Danielle much about the condo; she'd wanted to surprise her older sister. It seemed like she'd succeeded.

"_I know. I think it'll take me a while to realize this is actually my home now."_

"_Where's Auggie?"_

"_In the shower. I let him sleep in this morning, he usually wakes up at the crack of dawn so when he was fast asleep when I woke up I didn't wake him up. I think this moving thing is more exhausting to him than he wants to admit."_

"_Yeah, you're probably right. So, what do you need me to help you with?"_

Annie gestured toward the boxes lining one of the walls in the living area.

"_Those need unpacking. The ones to the right is kitchen stuff, they're all marked. The kitchen here is set up pretty much like the kitchen at Auggie's old place and I made a sketch of how he'd organized the cabinets before we packed everything up. I was hoping to set things up as close as possible to that. It should make it easier for him to find his way around. Here,"_ Annie said as she pulled out a couple of sheets of paper and placed on the kitchen island. _"Think you can figure it out?"_

"_It shouldn't be a problem."_

"_Thanks Dani, I appreciate the help."_

"_No problem, to be honest it feels good to get out of the house for a while. Even though I'm thrilled that Michael's back home he's driving me a bit crazy. I can't wait 'til he goes back to work next week."_

Auggie descending the stairs, wearing a pair of worn jeans and an equally worn t-shirt, his hair still damp, interrupted them.

"_Hi Auggie, what an amazing place this is! Did you win the lottery or something?"_

"_Hi Danielle!"_ Auggie said as he joined them by the kitchen island. _"As I told Annie when we first looked at the place what matters to me is that it's open planned with spacious rooms, and so far I'm comfortable with the layout. It will be even better when we manage to unpack all of our stuff and get organized, at the moment I have to admit I feel very blind and helpless. I have to ask Annie for help all the time."_ Auggie hung his head a bit; he seemed embarrassed to admit it.

Annie slipped her arm around him and kissed him on the cheek. _"Auggie, don't worry about it. I know you need a few days to adjust and learn the layout and where things are. Until then I don't mind helping,"_ she finished, planting another kiss on Auggie's cheek. He seemed to perk up a little bit and gave Danielle a brief explanation about his insurance payout.

# # # # # # # # # # # # # # #

A few hours later Danielle had organized the kitchen and Annie and Auggie had tackled about two thirds of the boxes in the living area. What remained was setting up Auggie's computer and sound system and organizing his extensive collection of jazz CD's. Stu, one of the Tech supports, were coming over after work to help Auggie with the computer and sound system. Auggie had claimed the area under the stairs as 'his' and they'd placed his desk and brown leather chaise lounge there. After placing a stack of heavy Braille books in the shelf next to the chaise Auggie stood up, placed his hands in the small of his back and stretched.

"_I don't think my back appreciates moving,"_ he growled. _"Hey, are you guys up for lunch? I didn't have breakfast and I'm starving."_

After checking the time Danielle said she'd better head home. The girls would be home from school soon, which meant feeding both them and Michael.

"_The man can starve in front of a fully stocked fridge,"_ Danielle said as Auggie questioned why Michael couldn't feed the girls.

"_Thanks for your help Danielle, we both appreciate it," _Auggie said with a warm smile as they escorted her to the door.

"_No problem, after all you two have done for us it's the least I can do. I don't think we'll ever be able to repay you, really."_

"_Danielle,"_ Annie cut in. _"Please stop saying that. You don't owe Auggie or me anything. We were happy that we were able to help you and the girls when you needed it."_

* * *

><p>"<em>So, what do you wanna do about lunch Aug? Order something or do you wanna go to the bistro again?"<em>

"_Bistro,"_ he replied quickly.

"_Wow, you really like that place, huh?"_

"_Braille menu without asking for it, waiters that don't get all awkward around me and great food. What more can a blind guy ask for?"_

"_Bistro it is then. Same procedure as yesterday?"_

"_Yeah, but I think I should change before we go over there, I didn't exactly dress to go out for lunch."_

"_Don't worry about it. It's casual and laid back. I'm wearing a pair of worn jeans and a t-shirt too and I'm not planning on changing. We still have work to do when we get back here."_

"_Ok, but let me grab a sweater before we head out,"_ Auggie said and gingerly crossed the room ascended the stairs.

"_Auggie, would you bring mine too? It's on the back of the chair on my side of the bed."_

"_Sure, I'll be right down."_

After pulling on a grey wool sweater and after grabbing Annie's sweater Auggie headed back downstairs.

# # # # # # # # # # # # # # #

15 minutes later they were seated at the same table at the bistro as the previous day. Auggie was scanning his menu with a smile on his face. When the waitress returned he ordered a Club Sandwich with fries and Annie ordered a Greek salad. They both ordered iced tea to drink.

"_Um, I've been meaning to ask you something Annie,"_ Auggie said as the waitress left them to get their drinks.

"_Shoot!"_

"_Josh called yesterday and asked if he could stay with us next weekend. He's meeting some college buddies for kind of a reunion on Saturday and he couldn't find a hotel room that didn't cost a fortune. Do you mind?"_

"_Of course I don't mind; we might as well put that guest room to good use."_

"_By then I should be able to find my way around without the place you having to wait on me hand and foot, so you'll only have one guest to worry about."_

"_Auggie, stop it right now! I know you don't like asking for help and depending on other people, but I don't mind helping you settle in to our new place. I know that moving is harder for you, but I know you'll have the place figured out pretty soon. Until then, allow me to help you, ok?"_

"_Ok, ok… I just hate feeling so…blind... I just don't want to be a hassle you know…" _The waitress with their drinks cut Auggie off. As she left Annie grasped Auggie's hand.

"_Aug, will you please climb down from that tree? I feel like we've been going in circles since this morning. I love you. I care about you and I don't mind helping you. You're NOT a hassle or a burden; you're the kindest, smartest, bravest, strongest person I know. Where is all this coming from?"_

Auggie sighed and paused a second to gather his thoughts._ "When I was discharged from rehab I stayed with my parents for a few weeks, I'd spent several weekends at their house while I was in rehab and I grew up in that house, so I never really struggled to navigate or find stuff. Then I moved back to DC, to a condo I'd lived in for years before I was deployed. I knew the layout, I knew where stuff was, and so it was like Mom and Dad's place. I was so excited about moving in with you and the new place that I didn't really think about how helpless I am in unfamiliar territory and the fact that the new place is exactly that. I haven't felt this way since I started rehab and you know how I hate having to use my cane at home."_

"_Aug, you're already navigating the place pretty well. I know you miss moving around freely, but give it a few days and I'm sure you'll move around like you've lived there forever. Now, can we please let this go and enjoy our lunch?"_

Auggie nodded, closed his eyes briefly and sighed softly. _"I'll try, ok?"_

A couple of minutes later the waiteress arrived with their food and they enjoyed their meal in comfortable silence.

# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #

Auggie's mood seemed to have improved slightly by the time they headed back to the condo. Again he navigated with his cane, this time Annie walked a few steps behind him and couldn't help smiling as he walked confidently in front of her and found his way to the bank of elevators without a misstep. As the elevator ascended Annie slid her arm around his waist.

"_See, you're already getting the hang of the neighborhood."_

"_Mhm… About that; my gym isn't far from here, I'm pretty sure I know how to get there, but would you mind going with me the first time to be sure I don't get lost?"_

"_Of course, tomorrow? I don't think we have time today, since Stu's coming over tonight."_

"_Tomorrow's fine. Thanks Annie."_

The elevator reached their floor and Auggie easily found his way to their front door, fished the keys out of his pocket and after a little fumbling he unlocked and opened the door, gesturing for Annie to enter first.

"_Always a gentleman, huh?"_ she teased as she passed Auggie, patting him on the arm.

"_Always! So, what's next on the unpacking schedule?"_ Auggie said as he closed and locked the door behind him and followed Annie into the living area.

"_Lets see… We finished our clothes yesterday. I need to set up my desk, but I figured I could do that while you and Stu deal with the tech stuff. Your CD's and DVD's needs to be organized and I have a few boxes of books I need to sort. I figured we might put my DVD's in with yours, but mine needs Braille labels."_

"_Why don't we save the DVD's for later? We should check if there are duplicates and labeling takes a while."_

"_Sure, I'll put the boxes in the storage closet for now, and we'll look at it when we've got everything else squared away, ok?"_

"_Sounds like a plan to me."_

* * *

><p>At 5:30 pm Stu rang the doorbell. Stu was the Senior Tech Support and the second in command in the IT department and over the eight months they'd worked together they'd become friends and at work Stu acted as Auggie's right hand man. What Auggie appreciated the most with Stu was how seamlessly provided him with the little assistance he needed from time to time without making fuzz about it or being intrusive. They made a good team and Auggie trusted that he did a good job covering for him while he had some time off.<p>

"_Hi Annie,"_ Stu greeted her as she let him into the condo.

"_Hi Stu, Auggie's in the living room, getting everything out of the boxes. I'm glad you could take some time to help; I'm so clueless when it comes to computers and tech stuff. I know the basics, but hooking up a complicated system like Auggie's is just too much."_

"_No problem, I actually enjoy some hands on work. Wow! This place is amazing, the building's nice and all, but the view and the windows…"_ Stu said as he looked around the large, open living area of the condo. Auggie heard them coming and stood from his chair and turned towards the sound of their voices.

"_Hi Stu, thanks for coming over."_

"_No problem Auggie, as I told Annie I actually like to do some more hands on work from time to time. So, I see you've got most of the stuff unpacked."_

"_Yep, just left the cords in the boxes. I've still got a bunch of CD's to sort through, so I'll just get out of your way. Let me know if you need any help, ok?"_

# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #

Little over an hour and a half later Stu had Auggie's computer and sound system up and running. Auggie had finished organizing his CD's and Annie had set up her desk in the guest room upstairs. As she descended the stairs she heard Auggie and Stu chatting away, they were sitting in the living area, each holding a beer.

"_So, are you nerds all finished?"_

"_Nerds? Are you referring to us?"_ Auggie asked, mock pouting.

"_Yes dear, I am,"_ Annie said as she crossed the floor and sat on the arm of Auggie's chair, putting her arm around him. _"Now, are my two favorite nerds hungry?"_

"_Some dinner sounds nice, moving makes me hungry,"_ Auggie stated before turning to Stu. _"You hungry?"_

"_Now that you mention it, I'm starving. Things were crazy at the office today and all I managed to get for lunch was a banana and a cup of coffee."_

"_What happened? Why didn't you call me, I could've come in for a few hours."_

"_One of the office servers in Houston got hacked. We had it under control and it got sorted within a few hours. I would've called if I'd needed your help, but we did just fine."_

"_Glad you got it sorted. Want another beer?"_

"_Sure. Thanks."_

Auggie rose from his seat and gingerly crossed the room and grabbed two beers from the fridge. He heard Annie moving around the kitchen next to him.

"_What are you cooking babe?"_

"_Carbonara with our twist, your favorite,"_ Annie said, planting a soft kiss on Auggie's cheek.

"_Thanks!"_ he whispered before returning to Stu. Auggie had learned that Annie wasn't as useless in the kitchen as she 'd led him to believe. It was more that she wasn't very fond of cooking and because her sister was such a great cook Auggie had soon found out that Annie lacked confidence in the kitchen. Annie had discovered that it was the same case with Auggie, and over the months they'd stayed at her sister's house, watching the girls they both gained confidence in their own cooking skills. The well-equipped kitchen in the condo would be put to good use.

* * *

><p><span>Saturday, March 19<span>th 2011

When Auggie woke up and rolled over to give Annie her good morning kiss he found her half of the bed empty. From lack of heat on her side of the bed it had been a while since she got up. He located the speech button on his alarm clock and the mechanical voice told him it was 9:38 am. Time to get up. Nature wascalling and he was hungry. After a quick detour to the bathroom he found his Army sweatshirt on the bench at the foot of the bed and pulled it on before heading downstairs. As he descended the stairs the smell of bacon and eggs hit his nose. He heard Annie rummaging around the kitchen.

As Annie caught the sight of Auggie coming down the stairs clad in a pair of plaid flannel sleep pants and his well worn Army sweatshirt she noticed he wasn't using his cane. She couldn't help smiling; he was getting a feel for the place and getting comfortable.

"_Mornin' handsome,"_ she greeted him.

"_Good morning babe, you're up early today."_

"_Nah, I've only been up for about half an hour. You looked so peaceful, so I didn't wanna wake you up. I wanted to treat you to breakfast in bed, but now you're up so I guess we'll eat here."_

"_Annie, as much as I appreciate the thought; breakfast in bed is not a great idea for a blind guy unless you're planning on changing the sheets and I did that yesterday."_

"_Oh… I didn't think about that…"_ Annie sounded a bit embarrassed and flustered. Auggie made his way around the kitchen island and put his arm around her and pulled her in for a kiss.

"_Hey, don't worry about it. To be brutally honest with you I've never been a huge fan of eating in bed, even before I was blinded I preferred to have my meals sitting at a table. I don't mind a cup of coffee and if you wanna eat something a bagel with cream cheese is manageable, it doesn't make too much of a mess, 'kay?"_

"_Yeah, it's ok. My mistake, I just forget that you're blind sometimes and this morning I was all excited about bringing you breakfast in bed and it never crossed my mind that it might be an issue for you. Sorry."_

"_Annie, darling. No need to be sorry; it's actually a huge compliment, bigger than you can imagine, that my useless eyes fade into the background for you at times. It's kind of a relief too; it's proof to me that I'm not the burden and hassle I feel I can be at times, but you repeatedly tell me I'm not."_

"_Good, you believe me then?"_

"_Yes Annie I believe you. And I love you. Did you notice? No cane this morning, I'm actually starting to feel confident about moving around here."_

"_I told you so, and I'm so happy to see that."_ Annie kissed Auggie briefly on the cheek before starting to plate up their breakfasts.

"_Have a seat Auggie, breakfast is ready."_

Auggie made his way around the island and settled down on one of the barstools. He soon heard the sound of a plate being set down in front of him, followed what he assumed was flatware and a glass. The sounds repeated and he heard Annie settling onto the stool next to him.

"_Eggs at six, bacon at ten and toast at two o'clock. Glass of orange juice at your two, and fork and napkin at the right side of the plate."_

As they enjoyed their breakfast they chatted about their plans for the rest of the weekend, about their return to work the following Monday and Auggie's brother coming to see them the next weekend.

* * *

><p>After breakfast Auggie headed to the gym. Annie had walked with him the first two times he'd headed there and he'd been there once on his own. He smiled as he walked down the street headed for the gym, his doubts about being able to settle into a new place was gone; he was starting to move around the apartment freely and he was getting the hang of the neighborhood. Annie had been right; it was just a matter of giving it time. He chuckled to himself as he thought about how often she was right. She was truly amazing and the more he thought about it the more sure he got about one thing; he wanted Annie Walker in his life forever.<p> 


	19. Migraine

******I'm so sorry I haven't updated my stories lately. Life has kept me incredibly busy and I finally got some time to finish off a few chapters over Easter. "The Vacation" will probably be updated tomorrow or Monday at the latest.**

**I've struggled with this chapter for a long time, and I finally feel like I got it to a point where I'm happy about publishing it. My beta agrees it's good to go. The first half has been sitting on my laptop for a long time, but I've struggled with wrapping it up. When I read Gwynne G's latest story, 'Blind Faith' yesterday I realized that her scene in chapter 4, where Annie finds Auggie in the bathroom, is very similar to the opening scene in this chapter. I wrote this weeks ago and there are no intentions of plagiarism or ripping off her plot. I've been wanting to integrate Auggie's migraines into this story since I mentioned them in chapter 2 and this seemed like a good time, with Auggie being tired from moving and getting to know his way around a new place, combined with Annie going away unexpectedly for a few days. Just wanted to make that clear. :o)**

**This story is coming to an end. I'm thinking one or two more chapters and maybe an epilogue to wrap things up. We'll see how that plays out.**

**DISCLAIMER: The usual: I don't own Covert Affairs, just a well watched season 1 DVD and an autographed photo of Chris Gorham.**

* * *

><p><strong>-19: Migraine-<strong>

Wednesday March 23rd 2011

Annie was exhausted as she pulled her carry on behind her through Reagan National Airport, heading for the parking garage. An unexpected trip to the L.A. office of Trusted Translations had been dumped on her when she arrived at work Monday morning, and as much as she loved to travel two-day trips like this one had never been one of her favorite things. Throw in two long days at the L.A. office and the flight from hell and Annie couldn't wait to get back home. When she'd placed her luggage in the trunk of her car and had settled in behind the wheel she pulled out her iPhone and dialed their landline number. To her surprise Auggie didn't answer the phone. She then dialed his cell phone and office numbers with the same result. She wasn't surprised he didn't answer at the office, after all it was after 9 pm, but the fact that he didn't pick up the landline in the condo or his cell phone had her slightly worried. She felt on edge as she drove through the DC toward Adams Morgan.

When she entered the condo 45 minutes later it was dark and quiet. Annie flipped the lights on. The fact that it was dark didn't really surprise Annie, as Auggie didn't turn on the lights when he was home alone. Lately he had made a habit of turning them on if he knew she was coming home soon though.

_"Auggie? Are you here?"_ She called out as she entered the living area. No answer and Auggie was nowhere to be seen. She noticed his iPhone; cane and keys were sitting on the kitchen island, which meant he was in the condo. He never went anywhere without his cane. Annie picked up her suitcase and quickly climbed the stairs to the second level of the condo. She crossed the landing and entered the master bedroom; when she flipped on the lights she saw him. He was curled up in a fetal position on the warm tiled bathroom floor, with a towel under his head. He was still wearing his work clothes and looked like he was shivering. Annie dropped her things and rushed to his side. She remembered Auggie mention something about getting fierce migraines that would put him out of business for days a while back, but he had only had a couple of small ones after they got together.

_"Auggie, it's Annie,"_ she said softly, gently placing her hand on his shoulder. His reply was a groan.

_"What's going on, is it one of your migraines? Have you taken anything for it? Please, tell me, so I can help you?"_

_"Migraine. Couldn't find my meds,"_ he answered, his voice barely above a whisper.

_"What are they called? I'll see if I can find them."_

After a few seconds Auggie managed to croak out the names of his meds and Annie found them in a zip lock bag under the sink. She made a mental note that they needed to organize the cabinet so Auggie could find them on his own if she wasn't around to help him. In the unpacking frenzy the previous week organizing the medicine cabinet had somehow slipped both their minds.

After running downstairs for a glass of water she got Auggie to sit up, leaning against the Jacuzzi and he greedily swallowed the pills. When Annie tugged on him to take him to bed he shook his head. _"Need the meds to work first,"_ he said as he slid to lay his head in Annie's lap. She wrapped her arm around shoulders and pulled down a large, fluffy towel from the heating rack above them and wrapped it around Auggie, who was shivering, he was only wearing a thin cotton shirt and jeans. Annie was tired from travelling and drifted off to a slumber while idly caressing Auggie's soft brown curls.

_"Annie?"_ Auggie woke Annie from her slumber. His voice was husky, barely above a whisper.

_"Are you feeling better Aug?"_

_"A little bit, the meds are starting to kick in. I'm ready for bed, this floor is nice and warm, but it's getting kinda' hard."_

_"Ok, do you wanna take a shower before you go to bed?"_

Auggie shook his head. _"No. Could you just get me some sweats and a t-shirt?"_

_"Sure. Can you sit up while I grab that for you or do you wanna lay down?"_

_"Lay down."_

Annie quickly folded a warm, clean towel and as she got up she slid it under Auggie's head. She quickly headed for the walk in closet and grabbed a pair of Auggie's flannel sleep pants and a long sleeved jersey. 15 minutes later she'd managed to help Auggie change and he was comfortably slumbering in bed. She quickly cleaned up the mess in the bathroom and took a quick shower. She went downstairs and made sure the door was locked and secure and turned off the lights before climbing into the bed next to Auggie. He immediately scooted over and pulled her close to him.

* * *

><p><span>Thursday March 24<span>th 2011

Annie was woken by their alarm clock the next morning, with Auggie's strong arms wrapped around her. He barely stirred. When she tried to get out of bed Auggie held her even closer to him.

_"Auggie, I've got to get up. It's a work day, remember?"_

_"Ugh…"_ he groaned. _"I'm calling in sick today. The damn migraine hasn't let go and I won't be able to function like this."_

_"You're not feeling better?_" Annie asked, her voice was laced with worry.

_"Oh, I'm better than last night, but when I get them this bad it takes me a couple days to recover. All I need is a couple of quiet days in bed and I'll be good as new babe."_

_"As much as I'd love to stay here and play nurse I don't think Joan would appreciate it. I'll try to get off early though; hopefully my inbox isn't piled high with urgent translations. I'm going to take a shower. While I do that I need you to think about what you need me to do for you before I take off, okay?"_

_"Annie, I'm a big boy and this isn't my first migraine. If I'd found my meds when I got home from work yesterday I'd probably be fine now. If you set my meds on my nightstand I can manage the rest myself."_ He seemed a bit annoyed and defensive.

_"Auggie, it's not like I'm staying home to hold your hand. I'm not patronizing you or suggesting you're not capable of taking care of yourself. I just want to make sure you're comfortable while I'm at work, ok?"_

Auggie sighed and nodded, sinking back to the soft down pillows while Annie stepped into the bathroom and closed the door behind her. He didn't have the energy to argue.

# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #

When Annie emerged from the bathroom 20 minutes later Auggie had drifted back to a slumber. She decided to let him sleep while she got dressed and put on some makeup. Annie quickly pulled on a pair of black dress slacks and a white shirt, topped with a black cashmere cardigan. After putting on some mascara and a bit of eye shadow she crossed the floor and sat down on the edge of the bed, she gently placed her hand on Auggie's shoulder. He woke up almost immediately.

_"I've got to leave in about half an hour. Can I get you anything? Do you want anything to eat?"_

_"I don't think I'll chance holding anything down just yet, but could you get me couple of bottles of water before you leave?"_

_"That's it, nothing else?"_

_"Um, my iPhone and a set of ear buds."_

_"Sure. I'll grab it for you."_

Annie went downstairs and before she grabbed Auggie's things she turned the coffee machine on and popped a bagel in the toaster. She filled the champagne bucket with ice and put several bottles of water in there. Hopefully they'd stay pretty chilled throughout the day. She found a set of ear buds and the charger for Auggie's iPhone, she'd noticed the battery was almost out, and brought everything with her upstairs. She explained how she'd arranged everything to Auggie and finally placed the vials with his medication on his nightstand. The bottles were clearly labeled with Braille labels.

_"Well, I've got to head out. Just call me if you need anything, ok?"_

Auggie smiled weakly and thanked her. While she'd been downstairs he'd called HR and told them he was sick. He was told to take the rest of the week off and report back on Monday. Annie kissed him gently on the lips.

_"See you later Auggie, call me if you need anything."_

_"Later. Thanks Annie."_

As soon as Auggie heard Annie descending the stairs and a few moments later closing and locking the front door behind her he drifted back to sleep. A fierce headache was still pounding in his head. He knew sleep was the only remedy, and he really should eat something soon, but he still felt slightly nauseous. For now sleep was the answer.

# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #

To Annie's relief there were only a couple of short translations waiting for her and she had them done by lunchtime. She explained Auggie's circumstances to Joan and she was given the rest of the day off. She quickly powered down her laptop and headed home. She found Auggie fast asleep in bed. She quietly changed out of her work wear and into a pair of yoga pants and a soft, worn t-shirt and slid into bed with him. He felt the bed depress as she climbed in and the rustle of fabric as she lifted the covers. He reached out and pulled her close to him. She was still tired from the long day yesterday and welcomed a long afternoon nap in Auggie's arms.

Auggie's iPhone buzzing on his nightstand woke them up a couple of hours later. Because he'd turned of the sound there was no ringtone to ID the caller from and he held the phone in Annie's direction.

_"Who's calling?"_ he asked.

_"It's Josh. Do you want me to take it?"_

Auggie shook his head and tapped the screen to answer the call.

_"Hi Josh,"_ he said, his voice was still husky.

_"Hi Aug, are you ok? You sound kind of off."_

_"Just a damn migraine. Haven't had one this bad for months, but I'm getting better."_

_"Oh, probably helps to have a hot, blonde playing nurse, huh?"_ Josh teased.

_"Oh har, very funny,"_ Auggie answered sarcastically.

_"Listen, I was just calling to make sure me staying with you this weekend is still on, but if you're not feeling too well I'm sure I can crash with one of the other guys."_

_"It's still on Josh. I'll be better by tomorrow evening. Just don't expect me to go bar hopping with you or something, ok?"_

_"Don't worry, I have a feeling my Saturday plans involves plenty of alcohol. If you're really sure I guess I'll see you and Annie tomorrow."_

_"Sounds great. See you tomorrow bro."_ Auggie ended the call and put the phone back on his nightstand.

_"Are you sure you're up for Josh staying this weekend?"_ Annie asked a few moments later.

_"Yeah. He's seen me through one of these damn migraines before, he knows what it's about, and by the time he comes tomorrow evening this damn headache should have let go. He's got plans all day and evening Saturday, and he'll understand if we're not up for entertaining him on Sunday, but by then I should be back to normal."_

_"Well, it's four in the afternoon. I'm getting hungry, how do you feel about eating?_"

Auggie paused for a few seconds. The nausea had subsided and he did feel hunger creeping up on him.

_"I'm not feeling nauseous anymore, but I'll have to take it slow, so something easy on the stomach, ok?"_

_"Just some plain yoghurt maybe? Do you want it here, or do you want to come downstairs?"_ Annie asked, remembering their recent conversation about breakfast in bed.

_"I think I can manage a yoghurt here, I'm still feeling dizzy and don't feel like trying to go down the stairs. Being blind and dizzy is not an ideal combination, makes it hard to keep my bearings."_

_"I'll go get your yoghurt, no problem."_

_"Thanks Annie,"_ Auggie said, smiling weakly. As much as he wanted to be independent and manage on his own he secretly enjoyed Annie's care.

# # # # # # # # # # # # # # #

A few minutes later Annie came back upstairs carrying a bowl of yoghurt and a spoon. She made a quick detour to the linen closet and pulled out a large towel she draped over the comforter in front of Auggie before handing him the yoghurt; she'd noticed his hands where shaking slightly when he'd taken a drink of water and she didn't want to get yoghurt all over the sheets. Auggie seemed to understand and didn't question her actions; he just thanked her for bringing the yoghurt and quietly began eating. The cool, smooth yoghurt felt soothing in his stomach and he finished it without spilling a drop. As Annie took the bowl from him she kissed him on the cheek and removed the towel in front of him.

_"I'm just going to grab a sandwich real quick. I'll be back in a little bit."_

_"No problem. I think I'll chance a shower. I feel kinda' sweaty and disgusting."_

_"Can you manage, or do you need me to help you?"_

_"I'll manage, go have your sandwich. I'll be right here when you come back upstairs."_

Annie patted his shoulder and left the room. Auggie slowly got out of bed and after retrieving a pair of clean sleep pants, underwear and a t-shirt from the walk in closet he headed for the bathroom. The shower felt soothing and when he came out of the bathroom about 15 minutes later he heard Annie moving around the room.

_"Annie? What are you doing?"_

_"Changing the sheets. Figured clean sheets would be nice. I'm almost ready, why don't you have a seat for a few minutes?"_

Auggie found his way to the soft leather armchair in the corner on his side of the bed and sat down. Ten minutes later Annie fluffed the last pillow and tossed it onto the bed.

_"All ready if you wanna get back in."_

Auggie groped around his nightstand until he located the correct vial of pills, shook out two before popping the lid back on and putting it back on his nightstand. He then grasped for a bottle of water in, uncapped it and swallowed the pills with a hefty swig of water. Hopefully the pills combined with a couple of hours of sleep would heal the remaining pounding in his head.

_"You coming to bed with me?"_ he asked as he got back into bed.

_"As much as I'd like to I'd also like to sleep tonight, since I've got to go to work in the morning. I've got a couple of errands to run and I'd like to get an hour in at the gym this afternoon. I'll be back in a couple of hours, ok?"_

Auggie nodded with understanding as the pills kicked in and he drifted off to sleep again.

* * *

><p><span>Friday March 25<span>th 2011

Auggie felt almost back to normal when he woke up. He still felt kind of off, but the headache was gone and so was the nausea. He felt tempted to risk eating something more than yoghurt. A few moments after waking up he realized Annie wasn't in bed with him, then he heard the shower running. A quick push of the speech button on his alarm clock told him it was 6:45 am and the date was March 25th. He realized it was the anniversary of the day he had lunch with Annie for the first time. He'd made a mental note to do something special for lunch today a while back, but with moving and then his migraine it had slipped his mind completely.

About an hour later Annie had left for the office and Auggie grabbed his iPhone off his nightstand and dialed Josh's number.

_"Hey Auggie, how are you today?"_ he greeted his brother.

_"Better, a lot better actually. Listen, I was wondering if you'd have time to pick up something from Mom before you head to O'Hare today?"_

_"I'm sure I can manage that, what do you need?"_

_"Um… Mom's promised me Grandma's engagement ring and I've decided I want to propose to Annie. Today's the anniversary of day we started to get to know each other, we had lunch for the first time, and I was hoping I could propose to her tonight. I need the ring though. If you think you can swing it I'll call Mom and have her get it out of the safe and ready for you to pick up. When do you think you'll be there?"_

_"Around 2 pm at the latest, probably earlier. I'm not going in to the office today, I'm just going to work from home for a few hours before leaving."_

_"Thanks Josh, I'll call Mom then. See you tonight."_

_"Looking forward to it Aug,"_ Josh said and ended the call.

After calling his mother Auggie got out of bed and headed to the bathroom. He had to arrange a few things if he was going to carry out his plan of proposing to Annie and he needed to get them done before she got home from the office. He could rest later.


	20. Marry me

**So sorry for taking so long to update this story. My muse just isn't very willing to play these days.**

**Here's the final chapter. I feel like moving on now and this feels like a good way to wrap things up. I might write an epilogue later, but it's just not coming to me. **

**The flashback in the middle of the story was originally intended to be a separate chapter, but I just didn't find a way to finish it. After letting 'joellen818' read it a while back she suggested I using it as a flashback in a later chapter. I finally found a way to use it and I'm happy with how it turned out.**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Annie, Auggie or Covert Affairs. :o)**

* * *

><p><strong>-20. Marry me?-<strong>

Friday March 25th 2011, Late afternoon

"_Whoa Aug, you sure put that insurance payout to good use!"_ Josh exclaimed as Auggie showed him to the guest room of the condo. _"This place is fantastic. It's a shame you can't appreciate the great view and wall-to-ceiling windows."_

"_I appreciate the open plan and I can't wait for the weather to get warmer so we can enjoy that big balcony. Annie loves the view and all of that. Anyway, bathroom's the second door on the landing. Our bedroom is on the opposite side of it. Did you manage to stop by and get the ring from Mom?"_

"_Yeah, hold out your hand."_ Auggie held his right hand out in his brother's direction and soon felt a small, velvet box being placed in his palm. He smiled broadly.

"_Thanks Josh, I really appreciate it."_

"_No problem Auggie. Mom's all excited, but she probably told you that when you called her yesterday." _

"_She didn't exactly try to hide that, no."_ Auggie said with a laugh.

"_How do you think Annie's parents will react? I'm not trying to be a downer here, but have you thought about what they might think regarding their daughter marrying a blind man?"_

"_Believe me Josh, I've thought about it a lot. I think they'll be happy for us. I've met them once and they seemed to like me. They didn't mind Annie and me take care of Chloe and Katia while Dani and Michael were in the hospital."_

Auggie's mind drifted back to when he met the Walker's in the hospital right after Danielle and her family was in the car wreck. He was confident Annie's parents wouldn't mind him marrying their daughter.

* * *

><p><span>Flashback: <span>

Saturday, November 27th 2010

As Annie led Auggie down the hall towards Chloe and Katias room he couldn't help but feeling a bit nervous. He knew that both the Brooks' and the Walker's would probably be there and after losing his sight meeting new people, especially in groups, made him feel nervous and uneasy. He never knew how new people would react to him.

"_Ready for this?"_ Annie asked as they approached the door to the girls' room. He heard the sound of unfamiliar voices coming from the other side of the door.

"_As ready as I'll ever be I guess."_ Auggie said with a shrug. _"Let's get this over with."_

"_The door opens in to the left,"_ Annie whispered to Auggie as knocked softly and then opened the door. They were immediately greeted by exited squeals from Chloe and Katia. They greeted the girls and then Annie introduced Auggie to her parents and Danielle's in-laws.

"_Everyone, this is my boyfriend August Anderson." _ Auggie let go of Annie's elbow and switched his folded cane into his left hand and stuck out his hand in the direction he'd heard voices. He was soon rewarded with a firm handshake.

"_Jonathan Walker, Annie's father. Nice to meet you August."_

"_Nice to meet you too sir. Please call me Auggie."_

As soon as Mr. Walker let go of his hand a soft female hand firmly gripped his hand.

"_Elizabeth Walker. Nice to finally meet the man my daughter has been talking about for quite some time now."_

"_Nice to meet you too Ma'am. I just wish the circumstances were different."_ Auggie said empathetically as Mrs. Walker let go of his hand and another female hand grasped it.

"_Marjorie Brooks."_ She said rather coldly and quickly let go of his hand, soon another male hand grasped his hand firmly.

"_And I'm Harvey Brooks."_

With the greetings over and done with Annie guided Auggie to a chair between the girls' beds and asked her parents and the Brooks' to step outside with her for a second. They hesitated for a bit, but followed her outside as Auggie withdrew a children's book in Braille from his messenger bag and it was clear that he had the girls' full attention.

Annie cut to the chase as soon as they out in the hallway. Auggie's sharp hearing picked up most of the conversation through the door.

"_Auggie and I have a suggestion,"_ she started off. _"We'd like to move into the guest room at Danielle and Michael's house and take care of the girls when they're discharged from here. I already live in the guest house, so they're used to having me around, and the girls know Auggie as well."_

"_I was thinking we'd take the girls home with us,"_ Marjorie Brooks cut in. _"Do you really think that you and that blind boyfriend of yours are capable of taking care of the girls?"_

"_Yes Marjorie, I have no doubt that both of us are capable of taking care of the girls. Auggie might be blind, but he's great with children. He's got four older brothers that all have children and he's great with his nieces and nephews. Chloe and Katia have known him for a while and they like being around their 'Uncle Auggie' as he allows them to call him. I think it would be better for the girls to remain in their own home and I think I'll be able to work from home for a while."_

"_I think it sounds like a good idea Anne,"_ Elizabeth Walker said firmly._ "Jonathan and I are planning on staying here for a few days, so we can help out until you get everything settled."_

"_Seriously Elizabeth? You trust Annie and a complete stranger, a blind man, to take care of your granddaughters?"_

"_Yes Marjorie, I do. Anne knows Auggie and he seems like nice man from what she's told me about him."_

"_What does he do for a living?"_ Harvey Brooks asked. Annie raised an eyebrow, she didn't understand what on earth Auggie's job had to do with anything, but she decided it was best to answer the question.

"_He's the Head of the IT department at Trusted Translations. He's got a degree in Computer Science from Northwestern; did ROTC in college and has done two tours in Iraq. He lost his sight in an ambush on his last tour, about a year and a half ago."_

"_He seems to have done pretty well for himself, despite his disability,"_ Harvey said with approval lacing his voice. _"And he seems like a nice enough guy. I'm willing to let you try. I agree that it would be good for the girls to remain in their home with everything that's going on. And it would make logistics easier."_

Any shred of doubt the Brooks' had about Auggie was erased as they ambled back into the girls' room to find Auggie lying on Katia's bed with her cradled in his arms. She was fast asleep, Auggie seemed to be slumbering and Chloe gestured for them to keep quiet. They stepped back out into the hallway and as soon as the door closed behind them Marjorie spoke.

"_How did he do that? I've been trying to get her to sleep since last night, but didn't succeed."_

"_I don't know, all I know is that the girls adore him and he's generally great with kids."_

"_I guess that settles it. If the girls are this comfortable around him I guess I can't really argue against you two taking care of the girls. Now, with that settled I'm heading over to the ICU to see how my son is doing."_ With that statement Harvey and Marjorie set off down the hallway and headed to the ICU.

* * *

><p><span>Friday March 25<span>th 2011

It was almost 8 at night when Annie arrived home from work. She'd been less than thrilled to find a huge stack of translations in her inbox, most of them urgent, but since Joan had let her leave early the previous day she didn't want to stretch her luck by asking to leave early because of Josh's arrival. She figured he and Auggie would enjoy some one-on-one time for brotherly bonding. She'd been relieved to find that Auggie had been feeling much better that morning.

Smooth jazz was filling the apartment when Annie entered and to her surprise there weren't any signs of Auggie and Josh chatting. She quickly put her shoes in the hall closet and left her bag on a chair in the foyer. She spotted Auggie's cane and wallet on the small table next to the chair, so he was at home. When she entered the living area she gasped. The room was lit by pillar candles scattered around the room and a huge bouquet of red roses sat on the dining table. A smaller bouquet of the same roses was on the coffee table. As soon as she entered the room Auggie approached her. She noticed he was dressed up, in black dress slacks and a white dress shirt.

"_Auggie? What's all this about? And where's your brother?"_

"_Josh is out with a couple of his buddies. When he heard I had a migraine and wasn't up for going out he called some friends and they're getting together._"

It was part true, Josh was out with some friends, but it was only because Auggie had revealed his plan to propose to Annie. _"Annie, I want to discuss something with you. Join me on the couch, please?"_ As they sat down Auggie held his right hand out and Annie placed her left in it.

"_Auggie, you're making me nervous. What's all this about?"_

"_Today is the anniversary of the first time we had lunch together. Remember, I was standing by the elevators, hoping someone would take me to the food court?"_

"_How can I forget? It was the day we started to get to know each other."_

"_From the first time I met you, when you came into my office with your laptop I had a feeling I wanted to get to know you and when we had lunch together that day I realized you were something special. If you've ever been uncomfortable around me you've done a great job of hiding it. You've treated me like an equal from the beginning. You've helped me regain my confidence and drive, and your easy acceptance of me has helped me accept myself."_

"_Wow Auggie, I'm lost for words, really, but for the record; I've never been uncomfortable around you. Maybe a bit insecure right in the beginning, but uncomfortable? No."_

"_Annie, you're the most amazing woman I've ever met and I love you more than I've ever loved any woman in my life. I want to spend the rest of my life with you."_ As he spoke Auggie kneeled down in front of Annie, still holding her hand and got the ring out of his pocket.

"_Annie Walker, will you marry me?"_

"_Yes! Oh Auggie! Yes, I'll marry you!"_

Auggie placed the ring on her finger and to his surprise it fit perfectly. Their lips met in a long and passionate kiss.

**-The end-**


End file.
